First Amendment
Feds Drop Request for Amazon.com Book Buyer Names
Posted Nov 27, 2007, 04:07 pm CST
By Molly McDonough
Unsealed court records reveal that federal prosecutors have withdrawn a controversial subpoena that sought the identities of 24,000 Amazon.com customers who purchased used books online.
The about-face came after U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker of the Western District of Wisconsin ruled the customers have a First Amendment right to shield their reading habits from the prying eyes of the government, the Associated Press reports.
"The (subpoena's) chilling effect on expressive e-commerce would frost keyboards across America," Crocker wrote in a June ruling that was unsealed last week. "Well-founded or not, rumors of an Orwellian federal criminal investigation into the reading habits of Amazon's customers could frighten countless potential customers into canceling planned online book purchases."
Questions remain about whether the ruling will make it more difficult for prosecutors to obtain records of book purchases. Seattle-based Amazon hopes so. A prosecutor told the AP that the ruling wouldn't hamper legitimate investigations.
The subpoena was part of an investigation into Madison, Wis., official Robert D'Angelo, who has been indicted on fraud, money laundering and tax evasion charges. Prosecutors say he ran a used-book business out of his city office and didn't report the income.
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