Pubdate: Tue, 09 Apr 2002
Source: Helena Independent Record (MT)
Copyright: 2002 Helena Independent Record
Contact:  http://helenair.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1187

UPHOLDING THE 1ST AMENDMENT

Denver's huge Tattered Cover Book Store is to book lovers as Christmas is 
to kids. The spacious, multi-storied home of one of the country's largest 
independent bookstores caters to a reader's every whim.

It also cares about its readers' privacy, and Monday it won a big victory 
in that regard.

The Colorado Supreme Court refused to order the store to tell police who 
bought two how-to books on making illegal drugs, finding that the First 
Amendment and the state constitution "protect an individual's fundamental 
right to purchase books anonymously, free from governmental interference."

A lower court had ordered the store to turn over the buyer's identity to 
the police, who contended the information was critical to their 
investigation of a methamphetamine lab and that they had no other way to 
prove who owned the books.

Store owner Joyce Meskis appealed, contending the order violated her 
customers' First Amendment rights.

Legal observers noted that the case does not prohibit police from obtaining 
bookstore records, but it sets a higher standard. Police must show a 
compelling need for the information, rather than just a "substantial and 
legitimate interest."

As often is the case in such disputes, the issues don't come only in black 
and white. We want police to apprehend people who make meth. Yet, we don't 
want the government snooping into our reading habits. That's a really 
slippery slope.

(Recall the clamor when Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr subpoenaed Monica 
Lewinski's purchase records from a Washington, D.C., bookstore.)

In the end, the Colorado justices unanimously upheld the deepest principle. 
Police have many routine ways to catch criminals. But only the courts stand 
between citizens and police-state-like surveillance of their reading matter.
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MAP posted-by: Beth