K-12 Supporters of Internet Needed (fwd)

[L Champelli <lchampel@INDIANA.EDU>]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is preparing to challenge
congressional efforts to censor the Internet and needs K-12 educators and
students who would be interested in serving as plaintiffs in a court
case challenging the constitutionality of the Exon bill.

The message from the ACLU attorney seeking plaintiffs follows.
If you are interested in assisting with this court challenge, or
want additional information about what being a plaintiff involves,
please contact Ann Beeson. Her e-mail address is: beeson@aclu.org

Thank you!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
L Champelli <http://silver.ucs.indiana.edu/~lchampel/netadv.htm>
lchampel@indiana.edu - School of Library and Information Science


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 18:09:57 -0500
From: Ann Beeson <beeson@aclu.org>
To: lchampel@indiana.edu
Subject: plans for court challenge to Exon bill

Hi--

<snip>

[Y]ou may have seen in the press or on the Net that the ACLU is
gearing up for a court challenge to the federal online censorship bill --
the Exon bill -- which is likely to become law in some form in the next few
weeks.  We are putting together a group of plaintiffs to help us challenge
the constitutionality of the bill.  These groups all use the Net to
distribute important educational, literary, or artistic work which
nevertheless could be deemed "indecent," and therefore criminal, under the
Exon bill.

While several groups (including sex education groups, human rights groups,
journalists, and publishers) have volunteered to participate in the suit,
we do not yet have a plaintiff that represents the interests of educators
of K-12 students -- the folks who work with the minors who Congress is so
determined to "protect" from the dangers of the Internet. Because of your
web site, I thought you might have some suggestions of educational groups
or associations that would be interested in preserving minors' rights --
and educators' rights -- to an Internet that is not government regulated.

In addition, we would like to include a group of teenagers that use the
Internet to communicate -- perhaps an educational bulletin board set up
exclusively for use by teenagers.  Any suggestions on that front would also
be greatly appreciated.

We may need to file the constitutional challenge within the next few weeks,
so a quick response would be greatly appreciated.  Please feel free to call
or write if you have further questions about the lawsuit.

Thanks very much,

Ann Beeson
ACLU National Headquarters
132 West 43rd Street
New York, New York  10036
212-944-9800 x788 (ph)
212-869-9065 (fax)
beeson@aclu.org