In a January 21 letter, the American Civil Liberties Union threatened Kern County, California, officials with a federal lawsuit unless the Kern County Library removed the BESS Internet blocking software produced by N2H2 from all library terminals within 10 days (see American Libraries, December 1997, p. 15).
In her letter, ACLU National Staff Attorney Ann Beeson claimed that "the Board has known for more than a year" filters are unable to single out unprotected speech. As proof, Beeson quoted from a September 19, 1996, letter N2H2 President Peter H. Nickerson wrote to Kern County Librarian Diane Duquette, in which he stated "we cannot customize [BESS] to filter harmful matter by web site as defined in the California Penal Code section 313 [because] it seems that this in part a legal matter and we do not have the legal expertise in house to make that judgment."
Posted January 26, 1998.