[WEB4LIB] CIPA Backlash

[Andrew I. Mutch]

Lynn,

Here's a good legal overview from a law professor at UCLA:

http://volokh.blogspot.com/2002_05_26_volokh_archive.html#85133844

He states that "The court held that under the First Amendment, public
libraries, whether or not funded by the federal government, may not filter
access for adults." 

However, he also states: 

"For now, the federal government is enjoined not to enforce CIPA. What
about public libraries, which are virtually all run by state governments?
May they continue filtering adult access (and I don't know how many do --
I suspect that many don't, given a trial court decision four years ago in
the Mainstream Loudoun case that also held library filtering of adult
access to be unconstitutional), or must they stop?

Well, the court didn't issue any such injunction; and its decision isn't
even binding precedent as to states in any part of the country, since only
appellate courts can set binding precedent. But the decision, handed down
by a three-judge trial court rather than a one-judge court, is probably
going to be persuasive to many lower courts. The chances that a local
state or federal court will enjoin any particular library's policy of
filtering adult access have just increased substantially."

His point, which I agree with, is that if the reasoning of the Court is
upheld, libraries that filter the Internet content viewed by adults are
going to have to decide whether they want to be the test case for a legal
challenge. The Court decision stated that NO Internet filter can meet the
standards required by the First Amendment. That leaves very little legal
protection for a library that requires adult to use filtered Internet
content.

My 2 cents as a non-lawyer, non-librarian.

Andrew Mutch
Library Systems Technician
Waterford Township Public Library
Waterford, MI





On Thu, 6 Jun 2002, N. Lynn Schlatter wrote:

> Over the past week (and I will cheerfully blame our local news, if you think
> it's appropriate), I've had several patrons be surprised by the fact that
> our library uses WebSense to filter adult-oriented content.  People seem to
> be under the impression that the recent Third Circuit court decision
> *outlawed* filtering.  I've been responding with, "no, it means the federal
> government can't force us to filter.  The library chose to do so a long time
> ago as a matter of local control."   Has anyone else encountered this
> misunderstanding on the part of patrons?  Is there a resource I can use to
> back-up my understanding of the decision?  I don't like the idea that I'm
> interpreting common law without being admitted to the bar.
> 
> TIA,
> Lynn Schlatter
> Instructional Coordinator
> Shreve Memorial Library
> www.shreve-lib.org
> 
>