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Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release, April 2, 2001
EFF & ACLU Take on Library Internet Blocking Law in Court
Groups Say CHIPA Censorware Legislation is Unconstittuional
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, April 2, 2001
Contacts:
Lee Tien, Senior Staff Attorney, tien@eff.org, 415-436-9333 x102
Will Doherty, Online Activist / Media Relations, wild@eff.org, 415-436-9333
On March 20, 2001, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) joined the ACLU and
other organizations in challenging new federal law requiring Internet blocking in schools
and libraries participating in certain federal programs. Framed on free speech
grounds, the lawsuit seeks to prevent Congress from requiring libraries to censor
constitutionally protected speech under the Children's Internet Protection Act (CHIPA).
EFF Senior Staff Attorney and CHIPA case co-counsel Lee Tien said, "EFF believes that
Internet blocking in libraries violates the First Amendment not only by unnecessarily
restricting the rights of adult library patrons, but also by depriving child library patrons of
online access to information that they need to be fully informed citizens." Tien noted that
U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Posner recently warned of "the danger of allowing government
to control the access of children to information and opinion. Now that eighteen-year-olds
have the right to vote, it is obvious that they must be allowed the freedom to form their
political views on the basis of uncensored speech before they turn eighteen, so that their
minds are not a blank when they first exercise the franchise."
In addition to library patrons, the litigation also broadly addresses the rights of librarians
and website owners who will be adversely affected by the law, including public
libraries from Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine; Congressional candidates
whose websites were blocked; PlanetOut.com, a lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgender community site; and the Planned Parenthood Federation.
EFF's participation in this case also reflects its members' commitment to free speech;
James Geringer, one of the individual library patron plaintiffs, is an EFF member.
The legal challenge was filed at the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, which
previously ruled on the Communications Decency Act and the Child Online
Protection Act. Participants in the litigation include the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Privacy Information
Center, the law firm Proskauer Rose, and Tom Sponsler, an attorney from
Multnomah County, Oregon.
The American Library Association (ALA), along with a number of local library
associations, also filed a legal challenge to CHIPA on March 20, 2001, in the
U.S. District Court in Philadelphia.
Each case challenges both CHIPA itself, and the closely
related (and strangely named) Neighborhood Chldren's Internet Protection Act
(NCIPA), passed as part of the same legislative package.
More information on the ACLU case is available on the EFF website at:
http://www.eff.org/Legal/Cases/Multnomah_Library_v_US/20010320_aclu_chipa_suit_pr.html
More information on the ALA case is available on the EFF website at:
http://www.eff.org/Legal/Cases/ALA_v_US/20010320_ala_cipa_suit_pr.html
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
( http://www.eff.org )
is the leading civil liberties
organization working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively
encourages and challenges industry and government to support free expression, privacy,
and openness in the information society. EFF is a member-supported organization and
maintains one of the most-linked-to websites in the world.
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