The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld a law that requires public libraries to put anti-pornography Internet filters on their computers, or lose federal funding.
The court, in a 6-3 decision, ruled that the Children's Internet Protection Act does not violate the First Amendment.
The law was designed to keep children from looking at pornography on the Internet, but the American Library Association and other groups argued that it prevented adults from viewing constitutionally protected speech.
A special three-judge panel in Philadelphia sided with civil libertarians in a May 2002 ruling.
Paul Smith, who represented the ALA in oral arguments on March 5, also criticized filtering technology, arguing that the available tools are blunt instruments that block not only porn, but family planning and sex education material as well.
The government argued that the law allows communities to set their own standards for what content would be filtered by school and library computers. It also argued that filtering Internet content is no different than the book-buying decisions that libraries make all the time. Adults, the government also noted, can ask librarians to disable the filters.
CIPA marks Congress's third major attempt to shield children from Internet smut. In 1997, the Supreme Court overturned most of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which banned online pornography. The court also invalidated much of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), which required adult Web site operators to make it impossible for children to gain access to their material.
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said the law, the Children's Internet Protection Act, does not turn librarians into censors. Rehnquist's opinion was joined by Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Stephen Breyer, in separate opinions, said the government's interest in protecting young library users from inappropriate material outweighs the burden on library users having to ask staff to disconnect filters.
Justice John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the law went too far in restricting material in public libraries, which are used by more than 14 million people annually.
- The Associated Press contributed to this report.
