United States v. American Library Association, Inc.

539 U.S. 194 (2003)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Congress enacted the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), to address concerns of internet pornography that is available at public libraries. Congress became concerned that the E-rate and LSTA programs, which financially aided public libraries to supply internet access to their patrons, were facilitating access to illegal and harmful pornography. The Act made continued E-rate and LSTA funding conditioned upon a library restricting access to pornography sites. Ps sued the United States and the Government agencies (D) challenging the constitutionality of CIPA's filtering provisions. A three-judge District Court convened and held that CIPA was facially unconstitutional and enjoined the relevant agencies and officials from withholding federal assistance for failure to comply with CIPA. The court held that the filtering software contemplated by CIPA was a content-based restriction on access to a public forum, and was therefore subject to strict scrutiny. The District Court held that, although the Government has a compelling interest 'in preventing the dissemination of obscenity, child pornography, or, in the case of minors, material harmful to minors,' the use of software filters is not narrowly tailored to further those interests.