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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) Ruling
by United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

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Title: Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) Ruling
Author: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5180]

[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]

[This file was first posted on May 31, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, CHILDREN'S INTERNET PROTECTION ACT

(CIPA) RULING *** IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA
AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION,
:
CIVIL ACTION
INC., et al.
::
v.
::
UNITED STATES, et al.
:
NO. 01-1303
- --------------------------------
MULTNOMAH COUNTY PUBLIC
:
CIVIL ACTION
LIBRARY, et al.
::
v.
::
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, et al.
:
NO. 01-1322
Before: BECKER, Chief Circuit Judge,

FULLAM and BARTLE, District Judges.
OPINION OF THE COURT
May 31, 2002
Becker, Chief Circuit Judge
CONTENTS
I.

Preliminary Statement
II.
Findings of Fact
A.
Statutory Framework
1.
Nature and Operation of the E-rate and LSTA Programs
2.
CIPA
a.
CIPA's Amendments to the E-rate Program
b.
CIPA's Amendments to the LSTA Program
B.
Identity of the Plaintiffs
1.
Library and Library Association Plaintiffs
2.
Patron and Patron Association Plaintiffs
3.
Web Publisher Plaintiffs
C.
The Internet
1.
Background
2.

The Indexable Web, the "Deep Web"; Their Size and
Rates of Growth and Change
3.

The Amount of Sexually Explicit Material on the Web
D.
American Public Libraries
1.

The Mission of Public Libraries, and Their
Reference and Collection Development Practices
2.

The Internet in Public Libraries
a.
Internet Use Policies in Public Libraries
b.
Methods for Regulating Internet Use
E.
Internet Filtering Technology
1.
What Is Filtering Software, Who Makes It, and What Does It Do?
2.

The Methods that Filtering Companies Use to
Compile Category Lists
a.

The "Harvesting" Phase
b.
The "Winnowing" or Categorization Phase
c.

The Process for "Re-Reviewing" Web Pages
After Their Initial Categorization
3.

The Inherent Tradeoff Between Overblocking and
Underblocking
4.

Attempts to Quantify Filtering Programs' Rates of
Over- and Underblocking
5.

Methods of Obtaining Examples of Erroneously
Blocked Web Sites
6.

Examples of Erroneously Blocked Web Sites
7.
Conclusion: The Effectiveness of Filtering Programs
III.
Analytic Framework for the Opinion: The Centrality of Dole
and the Role of the Facial Challenge
IV.

Level of Scrutiny Applicable to Content-based Restrictions
on Internet Access in Public Libraries
A.

Overview of Public Forum Doctrine
B.

Contours of the Relevant Forum: the Library's
Collection as a Whole or the Provision of Internet Access?
C.

Content-based Restrictions in Designated Public Fora
D.
Reasons for Applying Strict Scrutiny
1.
Selective Exclusion From a "Vast Democratic Forum"
2.
Analogy to Traditional Public Fora
V.
Application of Strict Scrutiny
A.
State Interests
1.

Preventing the Dissemination of Obscenity, Child
Pornography, and Material Harmful to Minors
2.

Protecting the Unwilling Viewer
3.
Preventing Unlawful or Inappropriate Conduct
4.
Summary
B.
Narrow Tailoring
C.
Less Restrictive Alternatives
D.
Do CIPA's Disabling Provisions Cure the Defect?
VI.
Conclusion; Severability
FOOTNOTES
1.
Preliminary Statement

This case challenges an act of Congress that makes the use
of filtering software by public libraries a condition of the
receipt of federal funding. The Internet, as is well known, is a
vast, interactive medium based on a decentralized network of
computers around the world. Its most familiar feature is the
World Wide Web (the "Web"), a network of computers known as
servers that provide content to users. The Internet provides
easy access to anyone who wishes to provide or distribute
information to a worldwide audience; it is used by more than 143
million Americans. Indeed, much of the world's knowledge
accumulated over centuries is available to Internet users almost
instantly. Approximately 10% of the Americans who use the
Internet access it at public libraries. And approximately 95% of
all public libraries in the United States provide public access
to the Internet.

While the beneficial effect of the Internet in expanding the
amount of information available to its users is self-evident,
its low entry barriers have also led to a perverse result\ufffd
facilitation of the widespread dissemination of hardcore
pornography within the easy reach not only of adults who have
every right to access it (so long as it is not legally obscene or
child pornography), but also of children and adolescents to whom
it may be quite harmful. The volume of pornography on the
Internet is huge, and the record before us demonstrates that
public library patrons of all ages, many from ages 11 to 15, have
regularly sought to access it in public library settings. There
are more than 100,000 pornographic Web sites that can be accessed
for free and without providing any registration information, and
tens of thousands of Web sites contain child pornography.
Libraries have reacted to this situation by utilizing a
number of means designed to insure that patrons avoid illegal

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