Loudoun County Internet Suit Headed for Trial?

Staff -- Library Journal, 9/7/1998

Arguing that the Loudoun County Public Library Board, Leesburg, VA, has not demonstrated a compelling need to censor the Internet and that its blocking policy does not determine whether a blocked site contains illegal material, the citizens' group Mainstream Loudoun -- plaintiffs in the first library Internet filtering court case -- filed September 4 for summary judgment. A summary judgment is a judge's pretrial decision on the law based on the premise that there are no facts in dispute. Meanwhile, library officials -- plaintiffs in the case -- argue that "no court has ever held that libraries are required by the First Amendment to fulfill a publisher's request to provide a pornographic film -- or any other information -- within its resource collection" and that its "good faith use of filtering software" is protected under an extant provision of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. An argument on the motion is scheduled for September 25, and a trial is scheduled for October 14. David Burt, founder of the pro-filter group, Filtering Facts, said he would testify on behalf of the library, along with Donna Rice Hughes of the anti-pornography group Enough is Enough; Karen Schneider, author of A Practical Guide to Internet Filters, and Joseph Janes, a founder of the Internet Public Library,will testify for the plaintiffs.