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NEWS FROM THE ACLU OF WASHINGTON
Amazon Sues to Protect Users’ Personal Information
North Carolina Department Of Revenue demands records
Requests by the North Carolina Department of Revenue (NCDOR) for detailed information about Amazon.com customers are unconstitutional because they violate internet users’ rights to free speech, anonymity and privacy. On behalf of several customers of Seattle-based Amazon.com, the ACLU intervened in an existing lawsuit brought by Amazon to stop NCDOR from collecting personally identifiable information that could be linked to their specific purchases on Amazon.
“The Constitution does not permit government agencies to conduct such sweeping collections of our personal and private information,” said Aden Fine, staff attorney with the ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project.
The ACLU filed the case on behalf of six anonymous North Carolina residents and a named elected public official. The plaintiffs include:
• a person who purchased books on self-help and how to get a divorce and a restraining order after her former spouse developed substance abuse problems and threatened to kill her.
• the general counsel of a global corporation, who has purchased books and movies with overt political leanings as well as books that may reveal her religious beliefs.
• Cecil Bothwell, an elected city official, author and proprietor of a publishing house who has both purchased and sold potentially controversial books on Amazon. He is an atheist, which his political opponents seized on following his election because of a provision in the North Carolina Constitution that purports to prohibit anyone who “shall deny the being of Almighty God” from holding public office.
According to the lawsuit filed by Amazon in April in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, NCDOR issued a request to Amazon for the purchase records since August 2003 of customers with a North Carolina shipping address as part of a tax audit of Amazon. Amazon has already provided NCDOR with product codes that reveal the exact items purchased, but Amazon has withheld individually identifiable user information that could be linked back to the individual purchases.
Since then, the ACLU has sent a letter to North Carolina Secretary of Revenue Kenneth Lay, informing him that the ACLU would take legal action if NCDOR persisted in its demand for constitutionally-protected information.
Government Agencies to Pay $418,000 in Political Surveillance Case
The US District Court in Tacoma in June awarded $248,817 in attorney’s fees and costs to attorneys for an Olympia activist in a case involving covert surveillance by several government agencies.
The award comes in addition to three payments to activist Phil Chinn totaling $169,000 from the Washington State Patrol, the City of Aberdeen, and Grays Harbor County, to settle claims that officials of those agencies violated Chinn's rights to lawful protest.
In its order on attorney’s fees and costs, the Court stated, “This case was far more than a wrongful arrest case. Besides ordinary damages, it was an attempt to vindicate the plaintiff’s civil rights, and involved issues of whether governmental agencies were unconstitutionally targeting and arresting protesters without probable cause.”
Chinn initiated the lawsuit (Chinn v. Blankenship) last year asserting that city, county, and state officials had developed and implemented a plan designed to prevent him and others from participating in lawful anti-war demonstrations at the Port of Grays Harbor in May 2007. The suit alleged that as part of the plan, state troopers stopped and wrongfully arrested Chinn after receiving word that he was driving a car with “three identified anarchists” in it. Chinn and his passengers were presumed to be “anarchists” based on covert surveillance by law enforcement officers.
“There’s no evidence that Mr. Chinn had broken any law or that there was any justification whatsoever for stopping him,” attorney Larry Hildes stated. “This was an attempt to silence dissent and to penalize those who participate in peaceful protest. The First Amendment exists precisely to protect controversial protest, and individuals should be free to protest without fear of retaliation,” according to Larry Hildes, one of Chinn's attorneys.
Philip Chinn was driving from Olympia to Aberdeen, Washington on May 6, 2007 to participate in a lawful demonstration against the use of the Port of Grays Harbor for military shipments. Chinn observed all traffic regulations and drove in a safe and careful manner. According to all tests, records, and other proof, he was not under the influence of any controlled substance.
By the time Chinn was released from jail, the planned anti-war demonstration was over.
Despite the complete lack of evidence, the Grays Harbor Prosecutor’s office insisted on charging Chinn with driving under the influence, a serious charge that can have long-term implications for life and career.
“Phil Chinn and many others were subjected to surveillance and harassed by the government while seeking to exercise their freedom of speech, assembly, and right to petition their government. The misconduct by three of our police agencies—state, city, and county agencies—highlights the need for state legislation to restrict government agencies from collecting and distributing information about individuals’ political beliefs without reasonable suspicion of crime,” said ACLU-WA executive director Kathleen Taylor. “The ACLU supported legislation sponsored by Sen. Adam Kline and Rep. Sherry Appleton—SB 6432 and HB 2798—to achieve this in the 2010 legislature and will promote its enactment again next session.”
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