-----Original Message-----
From: Nancy Willard <nwillard@CSRIU.ORG>
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 10:54:50 -0700
Subject: Re: [LM_NET] LM-Net question on filtering
Following a discussion on the concerns of overblocking, the lead Rehnquist
opinion stated: "Assuming that such erroneous blocking presents
constitutional difficulties, any such concerns are dispelled by the ease
with which patrons may have the filtering software disabled. When a patron
encounters a blocked site, he need only ask a librarian to unblock it or (at
least in the case of adults) disable the filter."
Kennedy concurring opinion: "If, on the request of an adult user, a
librarian will un-block filtered material or disable the Internet software
filter without significant delay, there is little to this case. The
Government represents this is indeed the fact.
So essentially THE REASON that CIPA was held to be constitutional, despite
concerns of overblocking, WAS the evidence that the filter could be rapidly
overridden to provide access.
Well, that's part of it. As I understood the case, it ultimately came down
to Congress having the discretion to put requirements upon funding
recipients. The following exerpt can be found in the complete text at
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/02pdf/02-361.pdf
2. CIPA does not impose an unconstitutional condition on libraries that
receive E-rate and LSTA subsidies by requiring them, as a condition on that
receipt, to surrender their First Amendment right to provide the public with
access to constitutionally protected speech. Assuming that appellees may
assert an "unconstitutional conditions" claim, that claim would fail on the
merits. When the Government appropriates public funds to establish a
program, it is entitled to broadly define that program’s limits. Rust v.
Sullivan, 500 U. S. 173, 194. As in Rust, the Government here is not denying
a benefit to anyone, but is instead simply insisting that public funds be
spent for the purpose for which they are authorized: helping public
libraries fulfill their traditional role of obtaining material of requisite
and ap-propriate quality for educational and informational purposes.
Espe-cially because public libraries have traditionally excluded
porno-graphic material from their other collections, Congress could
reasonably impose a parallel limitation on its Internet assistance programs.
As the use of filtering software helps to carry out these programs, it is a
permissible condition under Rust. Appellees mis-takenly contend, in reliance
on Legal Services Corporation v. Velazquez, 531 U. S. 533, 542–543, that
CIPA’s filtering conditions distort the usual functioning of public
libraries. In contrast to the lawyers who furnished legal aid to the
indigent under the program at issue in Velazquez, public libraries have no
role that pits them against the Government, and there is no assumption, as
there was in that case, that they must be free of any conditions that their
benefactors might attach to the use of donated funds. Pp. 13–17.
Bob Koreis
Librarian
Hockinson High School
The library is not a shrine for the worship of books. It is not a temple
where literary incense must be burned or where one's devotion to the bound
book is expressed in ritual. A library, to modify the famous metaphor of
Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas - a place where
history comes to life. Norman Cousins
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