The Connecticut Four are librarians who filed a lawsuit known as Doe v. Gonzales, challenging the constitutional validity of National Security Letters (NSL) issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under the USA PATRIOT Act.
For almost a year the ACLU fought to lift the gag order, challenging the government's power under Section 505 to silence four citizens who wished to contribute to public debate on the PATRIOT Act.
On June 26, 2006, the ACLU announced that, after dropping its defense of the gag provision accompanying the NSL request, the FBI abandoned the lawsuit entirely.
The Connecticut Four were honored by the American Library Association with the 2007 Paul Howard Award for Courage for their challenge to the National Security Letter and gag order provision of the USA PATRIOT Act.
[2] The Connecticut Four met on September 28, 2016 for the first time since 2006 when the group spoke out against the excess demands made of the librarians by the FBI under the authority of the Patriot Act.