ACLU may be about to sue Kern County

[Filtering Facts]

The ACLU may finally be ready to strike.  It looks like Kern County,
California is the place where they are going to sue.  This post retrieved
from Deja News at
 
http://xp7.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?recnum=%3c1.yzc_r2te6@panix.com%3e&server=
db97p5&CONTEXT=877999801.284623419&hitnum=3

shows Ann Beeson soliciting plantiffs for a pending challenge in Kern County:

Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 16:21:43 -0400 (EDT)
X-Sender: beeson at panix.com (Unverified)
From: Ann Beeson <beeson at aclu.org>
Subject: challenge to mandatory use of blocking software at libraries

I am a staff attorney at the ACLU national legal department in New York, and
I work on cases involving free speech and cyberspace.  (For example, I was
one of the lawyers in _Reno v. ACLU, in which the Supreme Court recently
struck down the Communications Decency Act.)

Patricia Nell Warren recommended you as a person who might be able to help
me with another Internet case we are planning in Kern County, California
(Bakersfield), to challenge the mandatory use of blocking software at public
libraries.  The memo below describes the case in more detail.  We are
currently looking for plaintiffs who live in Kern County, and in particular
we are looking for teenagers who use the Internet to access valuable
information that is blocked by the blocking program.

Feel free to distribute the memo below
to interested persons.  If you have additional questions about the case,
I'll be glad to answer them.

Thanks,

Ann Beeson

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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MEMORANDUM

RE:     Challenging the Mandatory Use of Blocking Software at Public Libraries

FROM:   Ann Beeson, ACLU National Legal Dept.

DATE:   October 23, 1997

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The ACLU is considering litigation against Kern County, California (the
Bakersfield area) for violating the free speech rights of library patrons
and certain speakers on the Internet.  As described in more detail below,
Kern County is preventing adults and minors from accessing a wide variety of
valuable information through Internet terminals at public libraries.  The
ACLU is interested in contacting people who live in Kern County who may be
willing to participate as plaintiffs in the suit.

Last year, the Kern County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution
requiring the Kern County public libraries to restrict the availability of
controversial material to minors over Internet access terminals in the
libraries.  The libraries then installed a blocking program called "BESS,"
which is produced by a company called N2H2.  The program is installed on
every Internet access terminal, those used by adults as well as minors.  The
policy requires that the blocking program remain active whenever "a minor is
present," and there appears to be no established procedure for adults to
request unblocked Internet access.

This past summer, the ACLU conducted research on BESS and determined that
the program blocks access to a wide variety of sites that contain valuable
information for minors as well as adults.  BESS blocks access to AIDS and
HIV-related speech, safer sex information, art sites with classic nudes, gay
and lesbian issues and literature, graphic human rights reports, information
about fighting hate groups online, and information about female genital
mutilation.

We believe the mandatory use of BESS in the library violates the First
Amendment rights of library patrons and Internet speakers who wish to
communicate constitutionally protected information.  It would be clearly
unconstitutional for a public library to remove from the shelves books that
contain graphic descriptions of human rights abuses, or information about
safer sex, simply because the library disapproved of the content.  It is
equally unconstitutional for the library to block access to controversial
material on the Internet.

We are interested in contacting Kern County residents who use the library to
access valuable material on the Internet that is likely to be blocked by
BESS, and who may be interested in being a plaintiff in this potential
litigation.  If you live in Kern County, and you are interested in
participating in this important battle for online free speech, please send
an e-mail message to Ann Beeson, Staff Attorney, ACLU National Legal
Department, at beeson at aclu.org.  We will then send you a follow-up memo with
additional information about the commitment to participate in the lawsuit.
There is no financial contribution required to participate.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ann Beeson, Staff Attorney, Nat'l Legal Dept.
American Civil Liberties Union
125 Broad Street, NY, NY 10004
212-549-2601 (ph), 212-549-2651 (fax)
beeson at aclu.org


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David Burt, Filtering Facts, HTTP://WWW.FILTERINGFACTS.ORG
David_Burt at filteringfacts.org