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Library Filters Get a Day in Court

The ACLU and the citizens' group Mainstream Loudoun presented oral arguments February 27 in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Maryland against the rigid Internet filtering policy in place at the Loudoun County (Va.) Library.

Originally filed separately by the plaintiffs, the suits were joined several days earlier in response to an ACLU request, National Staff Attorney Ann Beeson told American Libraries. Judge Leonie M. Brinkema is expected to return a written ruling within a month.

Brinkema (a former librarian according to a March 1 Washington Post story) questioned whether a library can deny an ILL request based on the item's content, in apparent response to LCL attorney Ken Bass's assertion that "never before has any case held that an individual can compel a librarian to provide information of their choice."

The day before, Brinkema overturned a state law banning public employees from accessing sexually explicit materials on state-owned computers.

Posted March 9, 1998.

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