American Library Ass'n, Inc. v. U.S.
Decision Date | 31 May 2002 |
Docket Number | No. CIV.A. 01-1303.,No. CIV.A. 01-1322.,CIV.A. 01-1303.,CIV.A. 01-1322. |
Parties | AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, INC., et al., v. UNITED STATES, et al. Multnomah County Public Library, et al., v. United States of America, et al. |
Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania |
Ann Beeson, Christopher A. Hansen, Kevin S. Bankston, American Civ. Liberties Union Foundation, New York, NY, Charles S. Sims, Proskauer Rose LLP, New York, NY, Stefan Presser, ACLU of PA, Philadelphia, PA, David L. Sobel, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Washington, DC, Lee Tien Elec. Frontier Foundation, San Francisco, CA, for Multnomah County Public Library Foundation.
Rupa Bhattacharyya, Theodore C. Hirt, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Civil Division, Washington, DC, Scott A. Coffina, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Annetta Foster Givhan, United States Attorney's Office, Philadelphia, PA, Timothy Zick, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Lisa M. Bornstein, Andrea Gacki, U.S. Dept. of Justice-Civil Div., Washington, DC, for Defendants.
Janet M. Larue, Family Research Council Amicus Curiae, Washington, DC, for Movant.
Before: BECKER, Chief Circuit Judge, FULLAM and BARTLE, District Judges.
This case challenges an act of Congress that makes the use of filtering software by public libraries a condition of the receipt of federal funding. The Internet, as is well known, is a vast, interactive medium based on a decentralized network of computers around the world. Its most familiar feature is the World Wide Web (the "Web"), a network of computers known as servers that provide content to users. The Internet provides easy access to anyone who wishes to provide or distribute information to a worldwide audience; it is used by more than 143 million Americans. Indeed, much of the world's knowledge accumulated over centuries is available to Internet users almost instantly. Approximately 10% of the Americans who use the Internet access it at public libraries. And approximately 95% of all public libraries in the United States provide public access to the Internet.
While the beneficial effect of the Internet in expanding the amount of information available to its users is self-evident, its low entry barriers have also led to a perverse result — facilitation of the widespread dissemination of hardcore pornography within the easy reach not only of adults who have every right to access it (so long as it is not legally obscene or child pornography), but also of children and adolescents to whom it may be quite harmful. The volume of pornography on the Internet is huge, and the record before us demonstrates that public library patrons of all ages, many from ages 11 to 15, have regularly sought to access it in public library settings. There are more than 100,000 pornographic Web sites that can be accessed for free and without providing any registration information, and tens of thousands of Web sites contain child pornography.
Libraries have reacted to this situation by utilizing a number of means designed to insure that patrons avoid illegal (and unwanted) content while also enabling patrons to find the content they desire. Some libraries have trained patrons in how to use the Internet while avoiding illegal content, or have directed their patrons to "preferred" Web sites that librarians have reviewed. Other libraries have utilized such devices as recessing the computer monitors, installing privacy screens, and monitoring implemented by a "tap on the shoulder" of patrons perceived to be offending library policy. Still others, viewing the foregoing approaches as inadequate or uncomfortable (some librarians do not wish to confront patrons), have purchased commercially available software that blocks certain categories of material deemed by the library board as unsuitable for use in their facilities. Indeed, 7% of American public libraries use blocking software for adults. Although such programs are somewhat effective in blocking large quantities of pornography, they are blunt instruments that not only "underblock," i.e., fail to block access to substantial amounts of content that the library boards wish to exclude, but also, central to this litigation, "overblock," i.e., block access to large quantities of material that library boards do not wish to exclude and that is constitutionally protected.
...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Certification From The United States Dist. For The Eastern Dist. Of Wash. Insarah Bradburn v. North Cent. Reg'l Library Dist., 82200-0.
...in A.L.A. noted, been to provide “ ‘universal coverage.’ ” A.L.A., 539 U.S. at 204, 123 S.Ct. 2297 (quoting Am. Library Ass'n v. United States, 201 F.Supp.2d 401, 421 (E.D.Pa.2002)). Rather, “ ‘[t]he librarian's responsibility ... is to separate out the gold from the garbage, not to preserv......
-
American Civil Liberties Union v. Ashcroft
...blocking software on computers at libraries that received federal funding violates the First Amendment. See American Library Ass'n v. United States, 201 F.Supp.2d 401, 406 (E.D.Pa.) (three-judge court), prob. juris. noted, ___ U.S. ___, 123 S.Ct. 551, 154 L.Ed.2d 424 (2002). This decision d......
-
U.S. v. Bell, Civil No. 1:CV-01-2159.
...Bell quotes Bantam Books, Inc. v. Sullivan, 372 U.S. 58, 66, 83 S.Ct. 631, 9 L.Ed.2d 584 (1963) and American Library Ass'n, Inc. v. U.S., 201 F.Supp.2d 401, 479 (E.D.Pa.2002), stating that "[t]he separation of legitimate from illegitimate speech calls for sensitive tools.5 The First Amendme......
-
United States v. American Library Assn., Inc.
...harmful to minors, the use of software filters is not narrowly tailored to further that interest. Held: The judgment is reversed. 201 F. Supp. 2d 401, reversed. CHIEF JUSTICE REHNQUIST, joined by JUSTICE O'CONNOR, JUSTICE SCALIA, and JUSTICE THOMAS, concluded: 1. Because public libraries' u......
-
Censorship by proxy: the First Amendment, Internet intermediaries, and the problem of the weakest link.
...speakers, but the trial court assumed that the interests of all of the plaintiffs were identical. Am. Library Ass'n v. United States, 201 F. Supp. 2d 401, 416 n.3 (E.D. Pa. 2002) (granting plaintiffs standing, over government objections). Justice Stevens alludes to the issue in his Until a ......
-
The New-age Streets and Parks: Government-run Social Media Accounts as Traditional Public Forums
...characteristics of the property cannot dictate forum analysis").71. See supra note 59.72. See Am. Libr. Ass'n, Inc. v. United States, 201 F. Supp. 2d 401, 466-67 (E.D. Pa. 2002).73. Brown, 383 U.S. at 146-47 (Brennan, J., concurring) (noting that "constitutional protection for conduct in a ......
-
The Children's Internet Protection Act: a Denial of a Student's Opportunity to Learn in a Technology-rich Environment
...an estimated 400 million people use the Internet with 143 million of those in the United States. Am. Library Ass'n v. United States, 201 F. Supp. 2d 401, 417 (E.D. Pa. 2002) (citing A Nation Online: How Americans Are Expanding Their Use of the Internet, 4 (Feb. 2002), available at http://ww......
-
Cities, Free Speech, and Confederate Statues.
...text, analogous case law, and fundamental free speech and federalism principles"). (121.) See Am. Libr. Ass'n v. United States, 201 F. Supp. 2d 401, 490-94 n.36 (E.D. Pa. 2002), rev'd, 539 U.S. 194 (2003) (addressing libraries' First Amendment claims). In a footnote stretching nearly twenty......