RULING PROTECTS BOOK BUYER'S IDENTITY

Colorado High Court Says Store Doesn't Have To Tell Police Who Bought 2
Guides To Making Illegal Drugs.

DENVER -- The Colorado Supreme Court refused to order a bookstore Monday to
tell police who bought two how-to books on making illegal drugs, saying the
First Amendment and state constitution protect the right to purchase books
anonymously.

The unanimous 6-0 decision overturns a ruling by a Denver judge who said
Tattered Cover Book Store owner Joyce Meskis must give records of the sale
to a Denver-area drug task force.

Police and prosecutors in the closely watched case had argued that the
buyer's identity was critical to their investigation of a methamphetamine
lab and that they had no other way to prove who owned the books.

But the high court declared that the First Amendment and the Colorado
Constitution "protect an individual's fundamental right to purchase books
anonymously, free from governmental interference."

Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free
Expression, said the ruling makes Colorado law the most protective in the
nation of a bookseller's right to protect the identity of its customers.
Colorado's Supreme Court is the only one to rule on the issue, Finan said.

Police sought the records after finding a mailer envelope from the
bookstore outside a mobile home they had raided. Inside the home were a
methamphetamine lab and the how-to books "Advanced Techniques of
Clandestine Psychedelic and Amphetamine Manufacture" by Uncle Fester and
"The Construction and Operation of Clandestine Drug Laboratories" by Jack
B. Nimble.