[KLUG Members] CIPA unconstitutional

[members@kalamazoolinux.org]

>> CIPA has just been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court
>> of the United States.
Yes, somewhat overstated, only part of it was.

>The decision says that the government is...
>
>    permanently enjoined from withholding federal funds from any
>    public library for failure to comply with §§ 1712(a)(2) and
>    1721(b) of the Children's Internet Protection Act, 20 U.S.C. §
>    9134(f) and 47 U.S.C. § 254(h)(6).
>
>20 U.S.C. 9134(f) is the portion that applies to schools.

My undertanding, and limited experience with ruling of this type is that
they are confined to just what they say.

>I would hope that most schools would keep that filtering intact.
Why?

>It is good to know that the federal government is not trying to dictate
>local policy from Washington but filtering is a great and needed thing
>in the libraries.
Congress was, by passing the act. The courts have removed that requirement,
in some small degree.

>And yes libraries do censor material. Simply by buying some books and
>not others, and in the decisions about what to cull out of the collection, 
>the library is making censorship decisions.
There is a difference between censorship and editorial choices that librarians 
are required to make, given finite resources. It is simplistic to blur the
difference between these two.

>Just look at the number of Windows books in
>the library compared to the number of Linux books!
Which we think is unfortunate, but is not "proof" of censorship.

>I can see IPCOP with squid guard and dans guardian being a great
>solution for schools and libraries!
Technical fix to what is essentially a social/political problem. Not a 
bad idea in of itself, but probably an answer to a question that has not
been asked (on this thread).

IANAL, But a friend of mine is, and he writes:

"My best guess is that it applies only to non-school libraries, even
though the law refers to 'public elementary school or secondary school
library'.  If they meant to extend it to that, they would have said so
explicitly.  There are very different First Amendment issues involved in
K-12 than in non-school libraries, the First Amendment has very, very
limited scope in K-12 but is in full force for non-school libraries.  In
K-12, for example, the school can prohibit T-shirts with political
messages, can censor student writings, etc., etc"

							Regards,
							---> RGB <---