Maria’s Bookshop filed a lawsuit against the city of Durango last week, alleging violations of the U.S. Constitution and the Colorado Constitution after a Durango Police Department detective tried to obtain book purchase records for several customers.
“I want every customer who shops at Maria's Bookshop to know that what they buy and what they read is their private information,” owner Evan Schertz said.
In January, Maria’s Bookshop staff declined a request from DPD detective Sydney Walters to provide her with the purchase history of several customers, according to a complaint filed Friday.
Walters later returned with a warrant seeking customer records, including purchase histories, for four individuals. The store again refused to comply.
Instead, the bookstore filed a lawsuit asking a court to block the enforcement of the warrant, arguing it violates the constitutional free-speech and privacy rights of both the business and its customers.
“It is not a crime to read a book,” said Chris Beall, a First Amendment lawyer representing Maria’s Bookshop. “The notion that the government is entitled to know what books you’ve ordered – what books you’ve walked out the store with – is a pretty substantial infringement on your freedoms, your privacy, your ability to have a sort of intellectual life of your own.”
The basis for the legal argument relies largely on the precedent set by the 2002 Colorado Supreme Court ruling on the case between the city of Thorton and Tattered Cover bookstore. Tattered Cover refused to comply with a warrant that sought two customers’ purchase records during a methamphetamine lab investigation.
The court unanimously ruled that law enforcement cannot access bookstore customer records unless it demonstrates a compelling interest and shows the information cannot be obtained by other means, warning such searches could have “substantial chilling effects” on free-speech rights.
Under the ruling, any law enforcement agency wanting access to such records is required to meet strict constitutional standards in a hearing that gives the bookstore a chance to challenge the request.
Maria’s Bookshop argues the warrant obtained in the case did not provide such an opportunity and therefore conflicts with that ruling.
The affidavit supporting the warrant – and details of the investigation police say justify seeking multiple customers’ records – were not provided to the bookstore and are not publicly accessible.
The Tattered Book case, Schertz said, has long been a touchstone in the independent bookselling community and directly informed Maria’s Bookshop’s customer privacy policy. The store does not share customer records with anyone other than the customer themselves, and all staff members are trained on and sign off on the policy when they are hired.
So when police recently served a search warrant for customer information, Evan said the store was “well prepared to respond.”
The bookstore’s stance can be placed within a broader national movement. Maria’s Bookshop is part of the American Booksellers Association, whose free-expression arm, American Booksellers for Free Expression, was formed around the time of the Patriot Act and is focused on defending reader privacy, Schertz said.
Ultimately, Beall said, the question for the judge will be: Have the police been able to prove that their interest in the records is so compelling that it outweighs the substantial First Amendment rights of, not just the individual customers of whose records they’re seeking, but all customers?
The lawsuit asks the court to permanently relieve the store from complying with the warrant, declare it null and void, and require the city to cover attorney fees.
“I’m very pleased that the bookstore wants to take this case and stand up for other people’s rights,” Beall said.
The city declined to comment on the lawsuit or provide details about the investigation tied to the warrant, citing a policy against discussing pending litigation.
jbowman@durangoherald.com
