The American Library Association has joined bookselling and publishing groups in opposing the subpoenas issued by independent counsel Kenneth Starr in late March to obtain information on Monica Lewinsky's book purchases.
Starr is seeking information from Barnes & Noble and independent Washington bookstore Kramerbooks & Afterwords, which are both fighting the subpoenas.
ALA and its Freedom to Read Foundation, along with the Association of American Publishers, the American Booksellers Association, and other groups, filed an amicus brief in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia April 2 supporting Kramerbooks' motion to quash the subpoena.
"The tactics in the Lewinsky case recall the FBI's 'Library Awareness Program' in the late 1980s, when government agents surreptitiously sought to examine library circulation records concerning certain books the government thought dangerous," observed Judith F. Krug, director of ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom. Pressure from ALA helped halt that program.
Posted April 6, 1998.