U.S. v. American Library Ass'n

Citation: United States v. American Library Ass'n, 539 U.S. 194 (2003).

In this case, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which requires schools and libraries that accept federal funds to purchase computers used to access the Internet to block or filter minors’ Internet access to visual depictions that are obscene, child pornography, or “harmful to minors”; and to block or filter adults’ Internet access to visual depictions that are obscene or child pornography. Blocking or filtering technology may be disabled, however, “to enable access for bona fide research or other lawful purpose.”

The plurality noted that “Congress may not ‘induce’ the recipient [of federal funds] ‘to engage in activities that would themselves be unconstitutional.’” The plurality therefore viewed the question before the Court as “whether [public] libraries would violate the First Amendment by employing the filtering software that CIPA requires.” Does CIPA, in other words, effectively violate library patrons rights?

The plurality concluded that it does not, as “Internet access in public libraries is neither a ‘traditional’ or a ‘designated’ public forum,” and that therefore it would not be appropriate to apply strict scrutiny to determine whether the filtering requirements are constitutional. But the plurality also considered whether CIPA imposes an unconstitutional condition on the receipt of federal assistance &mdash; in other words, does it violate public libraries’ rights by requiring them to limit their freedom of speech if they accept federal funds? The plurality found that, assuming that government entities have First Amendment rights (it did not decide the question), CIPA does not infringe them. This is because CIPA does not deny a benefit to libraries that do not agree to use filters; rather, the statute “simply insist[s] that public funds be spent for the purposes for which they were authorized." “CIPA does not ‘penalize’ libraries that choose not to install such software, or deny them the right to provide their patrons with unfiltered Internet access. Rather, CIPA simply reflects Congress’ decision not to subsidize their doing so.”