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Starr Drops Kramer Subp na
-- 6/29/98
Booksellers were claiming a First Amendment victory last week when special prosecutor Kenneth Starr dropped his efforts to force the Washington, D.C., bookstore Kramerbooks &afterwords to turn over its records regarding the book purchases of Monica Lewinsky. Starr withdrew the subp na he issued to Kramerbooks after Lewinsky's lawyers promised to turn over part of the information he had originally sought.
According to Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Kramerbooks case "has established an important precedent that will prevent prosecutors from issuing subp nas for bookstore records without sufficient cause." Finan added that Starr "made a mistake when he asserted that there was no difference between bookstore records and the records of the hardware store. The difference is the First Amendment."

Both ABFFE and the American Booksellers Association contributed more than $100,000 to help pay Kramerbooks' legal fees. Contributions can still be made to ABFFE, which is continuing to sell a "Subp naed for Bookselling" T-shirt.
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