Supreme Court of the United States

Book Id: WPLBN0000144304
Format Type: PDF eBook
File Size: 0.8 MB
Reproduction Date: 2008

Title:	Supreme Court of the United States
Author:
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Government publications, Legislation., Government Printing Office (U.S.)
Collections:	Government Library Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	Government Printing Office


Citation APA MLA Chicago Supreme Court of the United States. (n.d.). Supreme Court of the United States. Retrieved from http://self.gutenberg.org/

Excerpt
Excerpt: Two forms of federal assistance help public libraries provide patrons with Internet access: discounted rates under the E-rate program and grants under the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). Upon discovering that library patrons, including minors, regularly search the Internet for pornography and expose others to pornographic im-ages by leaving them displayed on Internet terminals or printed at library printers, Congress enacted the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which forbids public libraries to receive federal assistance for Internet access unless they install software to block obscene or pornographic images and to prevent minors from accessing mate-rial harmful to them. Appellees, a group of libraries, patrons, Web site publishers, and related parties, sued the Government, challeng-ing the constitutionality of CIPA’s filtering provisions. Ruling that CIPA is facially unconstitutional and enjoining the Government from withholding federal assistance for failure to comply with CIPA, the District Court held, inter alia, that Congress had exceeded its authority under the Spending Clause because any public library that complies with CIPA’s conditions will necessarily violate the First Amendment; that the CIPA filtering software constitutes a content-based restriction on access to a public forum that is subject to strict scrutiny; and that, although the Government has a compelling inter-est in preventing the dissemination of obscenity, child pornography, or material harmful to minors, the use of software filters is not nar-rowly tailored to further that interest.

Table of Contents
na