Supreme Court to Hear Internet Pornography Case

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Supreme Court to Hear Internet Pornography Case

November 12, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS




 

Filed at 11:52 a.m. ET



WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court said Tuesday it will
decide if public libraries can be forced to install
software blocking sexually explicit Web sites.

Congress has struggled to find ways to protect children
from Internet pornography without infringing on free speech
rights for Web site operators.

Lawmakers have passed three laws since 1996, but the
Supreme Court struck down the first and blocked the second
from taking effect.

The latest measure, signed by President Clinton in 2000,
requires public libraries receiving federal technology
funds to install filters on their computers or risk losing
aid. 

A three-judge federal panel ruled the Children's Internet
Protection Act violates the First Amendment because the
filtering programs also block sites on politics, health,
science and other non-pornographic topics.

``Given the crudeness of filtering technology, any
technology protection measure mandated by CIPA will
necessarily block access to a substantial amount of speech
whose suppression serves no legitimate government
interest,'' the judges wrote earlier this year.

The Bush administration argued libraries are not required
to have X-rated movies and pornographic magazines and
shouldn't have to offer access to pornography on their
computers. 

The three judges recommended less restrictive ways to
control Internet use, like requiring parental consent
before a minor is allowed to log on to an unfiltered
computer or requiring a parent to be present while a child
surfs the Net. 

``Although Congress continues to propose legislation to
protect children, all of these laws have been shown to
seriously burden the right of adults to access protected
speech on the Internet. They're all flawed,'' Ann Beeson,
an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said
Tuesday. 

The ACLU, the American Library Association, and other
groups had challenged the law.

Paul M. Smith, the attorney for the library association,
said more than 14 million people use libraries for Internet
access. The latest restriction ``takes a meat ax approach
to an area that requires far more sensitive tools,'' he
argued. 

Texas had asked the Supreme Court to uphold the law.


``Parents should not be afraid to send their children to
the library, either because they might be exposed to such
materials or because the library's free, filterless
computers might attract people with a propensity to
victimize children,'' wrote Texas Attorney General John
Cornyn, who was elected to the U.S. Senate last week.

Congress knew the latest law would be challenged, and
directed any appeals to go straight to the Supreme Court
after a trial before a three-judge panel.

U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson said the lower court
panel's ruling hurts Congress' effort to ensure that money
spent ``for educational and other purposes does not
facilitate access to the enormous amount of illegal and
harmful pornography on the Internet.''

The Supreme Court struck down the 1996 Communications
Decency Act, which made it a crime to put adult-oriented
material online where children can find it. The court said
the law violated free-speech rights because it would keep
material from adults who have a right to see it.

Earlier this year the court upheld part of the 1998 Child
Online Protection Act, which required Web sites to collect
a credit card number or other proof of age before allowing
Internet users to view material deemed ``harmful to
minors.'' But justices did not rule on the law's
constitutionality, and the government was barred from
enforcing it. 

The case is United States v. American Library Association,
02-361. 

The Supreme Court also agreed to consider whether companies
that run restaurants, lodges and gift shops at national
parks are covered by the same law governing disputes with
the government as other federal contractors.

The National Park Service has determined that the
concessionaires are not covered by the contract disputes
law, which gives contractors the right to have disputes
heard by a neutral arbiter and the ability to appeal to
either the federal courts or an agency's board of
contracting appeals. The case is National Park Hospitality
Association v. U.S. Department of the Interior, 02-196.

^------ 

On the Net: 

Supreme Court:
http:www.supremecourtus.gov

American Civil Liberties Union: http://www.aclu.org


American Library Association: http://www.ala.org/cipa

Justice Department:
http://www.usdoj.gov

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Scotus-Online-Porn.html?ex=10381
22875&ei=1&en=67778b5f03eedb03



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