Hudsonville Officials Mandate Filters,
Then Close Down Internet Service
Determined to keep an American Family Association-sponsored filter-mandate measure off the February 22 special-election ballot, the Hudsonville, Michigan, city council voted on December 6 to make it a local ordinance instead. It then immediately passed a second ordinance shutting down Internet service indefinitely.
Both actions were taken on the advice of the city attorney, Gary Byker Memorial Library Director Melissa Huisman told American Libraries. The first action sidesteps a lawsuit from the AFA as well as the possibility of enforcing the mandate for two years, the minimum time voter-approved propositions must remain in effect according to local statute. The second move prevents the civil-liberties community from suing over the inevitable filtering of constitutionally protected speech.
“They chose the smarter of the two options,” asserted Huisman, who anticipated that the city council would rescind its actions if the filter-mandate ordinance is deemed unconstitutional—a ruling officials requested from the state attorney general’s office the day after taking its actions.
Posted December 13, 1999.
|
