THE PRIVACY OF BOOK SALES MAY HINGE ON DENVER CASE

Colorado Supreme Court Will Decide If Store Must Provide Record Of
Customer's Purchases To Police.

DENVER -- Joyce Meskis didn't have any warning when the five policemen
marched into her office, search warrant in hand.

They were seeking the sales records of Meskis' Tattered Cover Book Store,
one of the country's largest independent booksellers, as part of an
investigation into a small-time drug operation.

"I was dumbfounded," said Meskis, 60.

She called her lawyer, who advised her to politely decline to cooperate.
With that, the battle began in one of the nation's most prominent First
Amendment cases.

Now, two years later, the Colorado Supreme Court is expected to issue an
opinion this spring about whether the police have the authority to search
the Tattered Cover's sales records and, by extension, the records of other
Colorado bookstores.

The case could decide whether booksellers have the right to keep customers'
purchases confidential. Losing that right, activists say, could influence
what publishers are willing to print and what bookstores are willing to sell.

The drug-lab investigation was part of a growing trend by law- enforcement
agencies to seek computer records in building a criminal case.

The case arose when a narcotics detail was staking out a trailer in
suburban Denver, where agents suspected a methamphetamine lab was
operating. The agents, who routinely searched the trailer's trash, came
across a Tattered Cover shipping envelope with an invoice number on the front.

When police raided the trailer, they found two nearly new books on drug
making. The books fit into the envelope found in the trash, so police hoped
to bolster their case by connecting the trailer owner to them. But to do
so, they said they needed to see the Tattered Cover's records to match the
invoice number.

According to an appeals brief filed by Dan Recht, the Tattered Cover
lawyer, investigators had to shop around before they could find a district
attorney willing to approve a search warrant for the bookstore.

The police, for their part, saw no difference between a bookstore and a
hardware store in searching for and confiscating records. What they
probably did not know was that Meskis is one of the more formidable
advocates of First Amendment rights in the United States.

"Joyce is a very stubborn lady," said Chris Finan, president of the
American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. "Her philosophy is
that people should make their own decisions about what they read, and her
job is to make available to her customers what they request."

"We sell any book that is constitutionally protected," said Meskis. "Once
we start imposing our value system on you, the customer, we firmly plant
our feet on a slippery slope."

Recht got a temporary restraining order to stop the search and bring the
case to court. But in October 2000, a Denver district judge ordered the
store to reveal the information, leading to the state Supreme Court challenge.

Recht said he has some hope for success because the Colorado Supreme Court
has a history of landing on the side of individual liberties. He said the
decision will be cutting edge, no matter what it is, because no other
state's high court has ruled on the issue.