ALA To Challenge Filtering Law
Staff -- Library Journal, 1/22/2001
Following a week of discussions during the American Library Association's (ALA) Midwinter Meeting in Washington, DC, the ALA executive board voted January 17 to file a lawsuit challenging the recently enacted Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and hoping to block its implementation. The law requires libraries receiving federal E-rate or LSTA funds for computers and Internet connections to block obscenity and child pornography on all computers and "harmful to minors" material on all computers used by minors. ALA contends the act is unconstitutional and infringes on the First Amendment, the organization said in a statement. ALA's decision came after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced its intention to sue and invited ALA to join the suit, and was encouraged by its sibling organization, the Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF). Though ALA will file suit on its own, it probably will work with the ACLU. "We have to challenge it, because no one else is going to do it the way we need to have it done, for the future of the profession," said Judith Krug, Director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom, noting that the law likely will block information that patrons want and need. While the law allows filters to be turned off for bona fide research purposes, Krug said that "we do not have a litmus test for people using materials in libraries. I think this threatens the profession right at its core."
