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PDFor child pornography, as is the practice of Tacoma’s
David Biek, who testified as a government witness.
Under either method, public libraries can assure
patrons of their privacy by tracing a given URL to
a particular patron only after determining that the
URL corresponds to a Web site whose content is illegal.
We need not decide whether these less restrictive
alternatives would themselves be constitutional. See Fabulous Assocs., Inc. v. Pa. Pub. Util. Comm’n, 896 F.2d 780, 787 n.6 (3d Cir. 1990) ("We intimate no opinion on the constitutionality of [a less restrictive alternative to the challenged law] . . ., inasmuch as we consider merely [its] comparative restrictiveness . . . .").
Whereas the disabling provision applicable to libraries
that receive LSTA grants permits disabling for both adults and minors, the disabling provision applicable to libraries that receive E-rate discounts permits disabling only during adult use. Thus, the disabling provision applicable to libraries receiving E-rate discounts cannot cure the constitutional infirmity of CIPA’s requirement that libraries receiving E-rate discounts use software filters when their Internet terminals are in use by minors.
Software filters sometimes incorrectly block access to,
inter alia, Web sites dealing with issues relating to sexual identity. For example, the “Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Southern Nevada,” http://www.lambdalv.com, “a forum for the business community to develop relationships within the Las Vegas lesbian, gay transsexual, and bisexual community” was blocked by N2H2 as “Adults Only, Pornography.” The home page of the Lesbian and Gay Havurah of the Long Beach, California Jewish Community Center, http://www.compupix.com/gay/havurah.htm, was blocked by N2H2 as “Adults Only, Pornography,” by Smartfilter as “Sex,” and by Websense as “Sex.”
Among the types of Web sites that filters erroneously
block are Web sites dealing with health issues, such as the Web site of the Willis-Knighton Cancer Center, a Shreveport, Louisiana cancer treatment facility, http://cancerftr.wkmc.com, which was blocked by Websense under the “Sex” category.
Although in light of our disposition of the plaintiffs’
Dole claim, we do not rule upon plaintiffs’ contention that CIPA’s conditioning of funds on the installation of filtering software violates the doctrine of unconstitutional conditions, we are mindful of the need to frame the disputed legal issues and to develop a full factual record for the certain appeal to the Supreme Court. Cf. Ashcroft v. ACLU, 2002 U.S. Lexis 3421 (May 13, 2002) (remanding the case to the Court of Appeals to review the legal and factual bases on which the District Court granted plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction after vacating its opinion that relied on a different ground from the ones used by the District Court). Although we do not decide the plaintiffs’ unconstitutional conditions
We need not decide whether these less restrictive
alternatives would themselves be constitutional. See Fabulous Assocs., Inc. v. Pa. Pub. Util. Comm’n, 896 F.2d 780, 787 n.6 (3d Cir. 1990) ("We intimate no opinion on the constitutionality of [a less restrictive alternative to the challenged law] . . ., inasmuch as we consider merely [its] comparative restrictiveness . . . .").
Whereas the disabling provision applicable to libraries
that receive LSTA grants permits disabling for both adults and minors, the disabling provision applicable to libraries that receive E-rate discounts permits disabling only during adult use. Thus, the disabling provision applicable to libraries receiving E-rate discounts cannot cure the constitutional infirmity of CIPA’s requirement that libraries receiving E-rate discounts use software filters when their Internet terminals are in use by minors.
Software filters sometimes incorrectly block access to,
inter alia, Web sites dealing with issues relating to sexual identity. For example, the “Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Southern Nevada,” http://www.lambdalv.com, “a forum for the business community to develop relationships within the Las Vegas lesbian, gay transsexual, and bisexual community” was blocked by N2H2 as “Adults Only, Pornography.” The home page of the Lesbian and Gay Havurah of the Long Beach, California Jewish Community Center, http://www.compupix.com/gay/havurah.htm, was blocked by N2H2 as “Adults Only, Pornography,” by Smartfilter as “Sex,” and by Websense as “Sex.”
Among the types of Web sites that filters erroneously
block are Web sites dealing with health issues, such as the Web site of the Willis-Knighton Cancer Center, a Shreveport, Louisiana cancer treatment facility, http://cancerftr.wkmc.com, which was blocked by Websense under the “Sex” category.
Although in light of our disposition of the plaintiffs’
Dole claim, we do not rule upon plaintiffs’ contention that CIPA’s conditioning of funds on the installation of filtering software violates the doctrine of unconstitutional conditions, we are mindful of the need to frame the disputed legal issues and to develop a full factual record for the certain appeal to the Supreme Court. Cf. Ashcroft v. ACLU, 2002 U.S. Lexis 3421 (May 13, 2002) (remanding the case to the Court of Appeals to review the legal and factual bases on which the District Court granted plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction after vacating its opinion that relied on a different ground from the ones used by the District Court). Although we do not decide the plaintiffs’ unconstitutional conditions
