On February 6 Loudoun County (Va.) Library received the dubious honor of being sued for the second time in six weeks over its rigid Internet filtering policy. This time, it's the American Civil Liberties Union, which is seeking to join a First Amendment lawsuit filed December 22 by the People For the American Way on behalf of the citizen's group Mainstream Loudoun. Oral arguments in both cases are slated for February 20 in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Maryland.
The ACLU plaintiffs are content providers whose postings are being blocked by X-Stop at the library. They include Rob Morse, a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner; Banned Books Online; the American Association of University Women Maryland Web site; and The Ethical Spectacle, an online publication whose editor, Jonathan Wallace, has published attacks on the effectiveness of filtering technology.
Posted February 16, 1998.