Attending the Supreme Court arguments were (from left) Daniel Mach, Katherine Fallow, and Theresa Chmara from Jenner and Block; from ALA, President Maurice J. Freedman, Executive Director Keith Fiels, Office for Intellectual Freedom Director Judith Krug; Paul Smith from Jenner and Block (who argued the case); ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee Chair Nancy Kranich; and Freedom to Read Foundation President Gordon Conable.
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Supreme Court Hears ALA’s
Challenge to CIPA
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments March 5 on the constitutionality of the Children’s Internet Protection Act. The law was overturned last year by a three-judge panel in Philadelphia because it forces public libraries that accept federal funds to filter Internet access for all users, even though its stated aim is to shield only minors from sexually explicit content.
Representing the American Library Association and other groups challenging the law, attorney Paul M. Smith told the justices that filters violate the First Amendment because they erroneously block tens of thousands of nonpor-nographic Web sites that include useful information.
“When a library buys books, it chooses the books one by one,” Smith said. However, the Internet contains “all the content ever created under the sun,” and to require libraries to selectively deny access would be “the end of the public forum doctrine,” he argued, according to the March 6 New York Times.
Defending the law, Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson argued that filtering out Web sites is no different than declining to purchase books for a collection. “When libraries block Internet pornography from computer terminals, they are simply refusing to put on their computer screens the same material they do not put on their shelves,” he contended.
Reports indicated the justices seemed skeptical of the challenge to the law. “What is the great burden on speech?” asked Justice Stephen Breyer, pointing out that users can ask librarians to disable filters to get to a particular site. Smith countered that it places a stigma on researchers, who must “go up and say ‘Please turn off the porn filter.’” The Associated Press reported that Justice Sandra Day O’Connor compared the interruptions to the waits required in traditional research when asking a librarian to find a certain book.
Justice David Souter noted that CIPA requires libraries to turn over decisions about which Web sites to block to the software companies. “When libraries historically have made these decisions, they've known what they weren’t buying or weren’t stocking on their shelves,” he said.
A ruling in the case, United States v. American Library Association, is expected by July.
Posted March 10, 2003.
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