DAHLIA: ADL HONORS TWO RIGHTS CHAMPIONS

The Anti-Defamation League recently honored two local leaders for their
achievements in civil and human rights during the organization's 2003 Civil
Rights Award Luncheon held at the Warwick Hotel.

Tattered Cover Book Store owner Joyce Meskis and lawyer and former state
Sen. Penfield Tate were the 2003 honorees.

Meskis was recognized as a champion of First Amendment rights, specifically
for her recent victory in the Tattered Cover v. City of Thornton, in which
the Colorado Supreme Court supported her refusal to release a customer's
book-purchase records to the North Metro Drug Task Force, which was
investigating a bookstore patron.

Meskis also filed a series of successful lawsuits in the 1980s challenging
state obscenity laws on First Amendment grounds, and continued to sell
Salman Rushdie's controversial book, The Satanic Verses.

Tate, the director of Trimble, Tate, Nulan, Evans & Holden, was recognized
as a champion of civil rights for sponsoring legislation to strengthen
hate-crime laws in Colorado. His efforts reflected his belief that hate
crimes not only target individuals, but repress entire communities.

Tate also has been a long-time community leader supporting organizations
including LARASA, Cerebral Palsy of Colorado and the Northeast Coalition
Against Drugs.

Tate's family members showing their support included his wife, Faye, sister
Gail Tate and his mother, Ellen Tate.

The Civil Rights Award has been presented to 33 community leaders since its
inception in 1982 including Gerald Quiat, who attended the luncheon with
his children, Daniel and Melinda; Sheldon Steinhauser; Ved Nanda; Bill
Cohen; and Johnathan Asher.

Additional supporters included Civil Rights Committee co-chairmen Madeline
Cohen and Rob Klugman; ADL regional director Bruce DeBoskey; ADL board
Chairman Bradley Levin; Hon. Michael Bender; Rep. Mark Udall; district
attorney Bill Ritter; and former Sen. Pat Pascoe.

For more information about the ADL Mountain States Region, call 303-830-7177.

Dahlia Jean Weinstein is the society writer.