FC: Colorado high court won't order bookstore to turn over records

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Bookstore-Records.html
DENVER (AP) -- The Colorado Supreme Court refused to order a bookstore to
turn over its sales records to police on Monday, overturning a lower court
decision demanding the records as part of a drug investigation.
In a 53-page ruling, the court said police erred when they went after the
records to establish which books a suspect had purchased.

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From: hporterf () du edu
Date: Mon, 08 Apr 2002 17:35:13 -0600
Subject: Tattered Cover Bookstore
To: declan () well com

i'm not sure if this is the right link...

Declan,

I don't know if you've gotten this yet or not but in Denver The Tattered 
Cover Bookstore has won it's case before the Colorado Supreme Court.  Thort

<http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,53%257E514319%257E36%257E474,00.html#RESULTS>http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,53%257E514319%257E36%257E474,00.html#RESULTS 


Monday, April 08, 2002 - 10 a.m. - The Colorado Supreme Court today refused 
to order a book store to allow police to see its sales records as part of a 
drug investigation.

In a 53-page decision, the judges said police erred when they went after 
the records to establish who purchased books on drug manufacturing. The 
court said the search warrant should never have been issued in the first 
place.

They said the recognize that the First Amendment and a section of the 
Colorado Constitution "protect an individual's fundamental right to 
purchase books anonymously, free from governmental interference."

...

-Harry Porterfield

---

For further information, contact:
Chris Finan, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression
(212) 587-4025

For Immediate Release

Tattered Cover Victorious in Battle Against Search Warrant

DENVER, April 8, 2002--The Colorado Supreme Court today
reversed a court decision that required Denver's Tattered Cover Book
Store to turn over information about books purchased by one of its
customers.  In a decision by all six of the participating justices, the
Supreme Court ruled that the search warrant issued to the Tattered
Cover violated both the First Amendment and the Colorado Constitution's
guarantee of free expression.  "Had it not been for the Tattered
Cover's steadfast stance, the zealousness of the City would have led to
the disclosure of information that we ultimately conclude is
constitutionally protected," the Court declared.

In its 51-page decision, the Court said that search warrants
targeting bookseller records pose such a grave threat to free
expression that in the future they should only be issued after a
hearing at which the bookseller has an opportunity to oppose them.
"Search warrants directed to bookstores, demanding information about
the reading history of customers, intrude upon the First Amendment
rights of customers and bookstores because compelled disclosure of
book-buying records threatens to destroy the anonymity upon which many
customers depend," the Court said.

Although the decision will apply only to the Colorado courts,
it will have national significance, Chris Finan, president of the
American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), said.
"The Colorado Supreme Court has issued the strongest opinion by any
court on the importance of protecting customer privacy in bookstores.
It will influence judges deciding future cases involving bookstore
search warrants and subpoenas," he explained.

There has been an alarming increase in the number of bookstore
subpoenas and search warrants since Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr
subpoenaed Monica Lewinsky's book purchase records in 1998, Finan
added.  In the last two years, there have been four cases involving
search warrants or subpoenas for bookstore customer information.
However, the bookstores successfully resisted these demands.

The Tattered Cover case began in April 2000 when police
attempted to serve a search warrant for the records of a Tattered Cover
customer who was suspected of illegally manufacturing methamphetamine.
The warrant sought a list of the customer's book puchases over a 30-day
period as well as information about the contents of an empty Tattered
Cover envelope that was found in the trash outside the suspect's home.
The police wanted to know if the envelope had contained two books on
manufacturing methamphetamine that were found inside the home.  In
October, a Denver District Court judge narrowed the scope of the
warrant but ordered Tattered Cover to identify the contents of the
envelope.

ABFFE has helped raise money to pay Tattered Cover's legal
bills.  It has also organized amicus briefs on Tattered Cover's behalf.

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