Sol M. Hirsch, Director of the Alachua County Library District in Florida, had an unusual experience challenging a subpoena for library records issued by the local State Attorney in 2005. Here is a summary written by the Assistant County Attorney Bill Harlan who worked on the case for the library. Thanks, Sol, for ensuring that the library didn't turn over records without a court order.
SUBPOENA FOR CONFIDENTIAL LIBRARY RECORDS - A FRIENDLY MOTION TO QUASH
The Alachua County Library District received a patron complaint that a Library-owned commercial videotape children's movie had been altered by the addition of pornographic video. The local State Attorney's (prosecutor) office began an investigation. No criminal charges had been filed, for lack of an identified suspect, when the Library District received a subpoena for the circulation records pertaining to the videotape. It was clear that the requested records would be critical to the investigation into who tampered with the movie.
The Library Director immediately printed the requested records to preserve them, since the Library's electronic circulation records are only maintained for 30 days. He contacted his legal advisor in the County Attorney's Office for assistance with the subpoena.
Section 257.261, Florida Statutes (2005) prohibits releasing patron registration or circulation records without a court order, with limited exceptions. The State Attorney General had issued an interpretive opinion, number 94-86 (see http://myfloridalegal.com/ago.nsf/Opinions/936FCA358E6BC1998525622100600BAF,
which is on the Attorney General's website), concluding a subpoena was normally sufficient to overcome this grant of confidentiality, since a public library in Florida, upon receiving a subpoena, could only comply with it or go to court to seek to quash the subpoena. In other words, we could not simply stand on the confidentiality statute and refuse to comply.
However, this was a prospective criminal case, so a cautious approach seemed in order considering what was at stake.So the Director asked the legal office to obtain a court order. The Clerk of Court's office balked at our filing an unusual motion without a current case in the court, so we modified a standard motion to quash only slightly to request the court to quash the subpoena or issue a court order directing the Library Director to comply with it. The Clerk's office assigned the motion to a civil court judge available to hear it (again, no criminal case had yet been filed) and after a brief hearing, the judge issued the court order and the Director complied. The Library District's possible liability for failing to comply with confidentiality requirements was overcome without unduly delaying the important criminal investigation.
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