The Children's Internet Protection Act, an antipornography law aimed at libraries, will face a challenge in the Supreme Court. The Court agreed last week to hear the case, which contests on First Amendment grounds the 2000 law that requires that public libraries receiving federal funds install filtering software on their terminals. The American Library Association is the lead plaintiff in the case.
Like the Children's Online Protection Act, which placed a burden on site operators to prevent minors from seeing adult materials, the law requires similar actions from libraries. Critics deride it as too broad, saying that filtering technology is too crude and will stifle other means of free speech. They suggest an alternative to filters, such as requiring parental consent before children can log on to a computer. A three-judge panel in Philadelphia had overturned the law, saying that filters acted as a "blunt instrument," unconstitutionally blocking access to protected speech.
