Pubdate: Sun, 13 Jan 2002
Source: Observer, The (UK)
Copyright: 2002 The Observer
Contact:  http://www.observer.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/315
Author: Lawrence Donegan, in San Francisco

DRUGS SQUAD FUMES AS BOOKSHOP SHIELDS READER

Prize-Winning US Writers Queue Up To Defend Privacy Of Customer Who Bought 
Uncle Fester's Illicit Manual

It never won a Pulitzer or appeared on the New York Times bestseller lists 
but a 400-page book about the manufacture of illicit drugs by an author 
known as Uncle Fester is at the centre of a legal battle over the privacy 
of the US book-buying public. In what has been described as a landmark case 
for the US book industry, the Tattered Cover bookshop in Denver, Colorado, 
has spent 18 months resisting the attempts of both police and courts to 
obtain the identity of a customer who purchased Uncle Fester's opus, 
Advanced Techniques of Clandestine Drug Laboratories .

Many of the country's most celebrated authors, publishers and booksellers 
are supporting the shop, which has argued that handing over the information 
would be a serious attack on free speech.

'There is a right to privacy in this country and that includes the right to 
read what we like without government interference,' says award-winning 
novelist Michael Chabon. 'If the police get what they are after in this 
case, what is to stop them demanding to know all sorts of things - like who 
has been reading books about any subject the authorities deem to be 
'dangerous', such as religious beliefs that don't fit into the so-called 
mainstream.'

Chabon, who won the Pulitzer last year for his novel The Amazing Adventures 
of Kavalier and Clay, is one of several leading writers, including David 
Eggers, Dorothy Allison and the children's book author Daniel Handler, who 
have giving financial support to the Tattered Cover's legal defence fund, 
along with the American Booksellers' Foundation.

'People shop in bookstores on the understanding that their choices are 
confidential,' says Chris Finan, president of the ABF's Foundation for Free 
Expression. 'There are a lot of books about subjects - mental health, 
sexual dysfunction - that we do not want our wives or husbands to know 
we've been reading about. If people know the police can get that kind of 
information they will not shop for those books.'

The case centres on a raid by drug enforcement officers at a trailer park 
near Denver in March last year. The Uncle Fester book and another called 
Advanced Techniques of Clandestine Psychedelic Drug Laboratories were found 
inside a trailer owned by a man suspected of operating a methamphetamine 
lab. An envelope discovered in his rubbish bin contained an invoice from 
the Tattered Cover.

The following day four plainclothes officers arrived at the shop with a 
search warrant, demanding to know if the books were bought there and, if 
so, by whom. The shop's owner, Joyce Meskis, refused to provide the 
information. 'It is not our job to do the police's work for them,' she said.

Denver police then asked that it enforce the subpoena. At a subsequent 
hearing, lawyers for the bookshop argued the police had failed to interview 
other witnesses who could have helped convict the suspect. Details of a 
customer's purchasing record were not sufficiently important to the 
criminal case to justify the 'chilling effect' that releasing such 
information would have on the right to free speech enshrined in the First 
Amendment, they said.

However, the court upheld the police request - a decision which has been 
challenged by the shop's owners in the State's Supreme Court. A ruling on 
the appeal is expected in the next few weeks.

The case has echoes of that brought by Kenneth Starr against two bookshops 
in Washington DC during his investigation into the Monica Lewinsky 
'scandal'. When it emerged that Lewinsky - who was said to have given 
President Clinton several books as presents - was a regular customer at the 
shops, Starr demanded to see her purchase records. The shops' owners 
resisted his request, but the case never reached court after Lewinsky 
struck a deal with the former Independent Counsel.

Finan said yesterday there was a growing problem with authorities seeking 
private information from bookshops. 'I'm afraid this may be a bad idea 
whose time has come, and the chilling effect on publishing could be very 
serious indeed. In the Lewinsky case, a false rumour went around that the 
bookshops were going to comply with Starr's request. The effect of that was 
they saw a big fall-off in business. People trust bookstores to protect 
them. If they don't have that trust, they will not shop there.'

The Tattered Cover, spread over four floors in downtown Denver, is a 
required stop on the book tour schedule for every bestselling author and 
has a reputation for stocking radical, independently published books that 
have little chance of finding shelf space in chain stores such as Borders 
and Barnes and Noble.

Meskis said she had been heartened by the support she and her staff had 
received from writers, publishers and the public. More than 400 people 
turned up at a fund-raising event at a San Francisco bookshop last night.

'Like us, they realise that everyone in society has to do what they can to 
uphold the rule of law but that we also have an obligation to the community 
to protect the constitution. When you have one responsibility bumping up 
against another, then that's when the courts should decide.'
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