Internet Filters and Public Libraries by David L. Sobel is a new First Report now available from the First Amendment Center.

Sobel , general counsel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, examines the effects of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2003 ruling in U.S. v. American Library Association, which declared the Children’s Internet Protection Act constitutional. CIPA mandates that libraries accepting federal funds install filtering software to block access to material that is “obscene,” “child pornography” or “harmful to minors.”

“Even as it recognized that ‘a filter set to block pornography may sometimes block other sites that present neither obscene nor pornographic material,’” Sobel writes, “the Court ruled that CIPA does not violate patrons’ First Amendment rights.

“The Court’s decision relied heavily on the ‘ease’ with which patrons may have filtering software disabled and the capacity of libraries to permanently unblock any erroneously blocked site,” says Sobel. He foresees that the narrow focus of the high court’s ruling “may set the stage for continuing controversy — and more litigation — as libraries across the country install filtering systems and respond to patron requests for access to blocked material.”