FC: Library filtering trial starts Monday in Philadelphia

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

I will be covering the trial (though I may not stay for the entire two 
weeks) starting tomorrow in Philadelphia. It's at the federal courthouse at 
601 Market St., courtroom 16-A, starts at 9:15 am and of course is open to 
the public.

Politech archive on CIPA (the federal filtering law in question):
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=cipa

And here's a photo of Bruce Taylor of the National Law Center for Children 
and Families and some random malcontent six years ago:
http://www.mccullagh.org/tmp/taylor.cfp96.jpg

-Declan

---

From: Emily Whitfield <EWHITFIELD () aclu org>
To: declan () wired com, declan () well com
Subject: ACLU info on CIPA trial starting Monday
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 13:38:10 -0500

Hi, Declan. Will we be seeing you at the CIPA trial?  I'll be there on
Monday and Tuesday. It'll be like old times. Maybe you'll even get in
another game of pool with Bruce Taylor.
I hope you'll spread the word that the ACLU has created a comprehensive web
page with information on the CIPA trial, including a list of daily trial
witnesses with bios, expert witness reports, examples of blocked web pages,
and of course all the legal papers. We'll be posting trial updates as things
progress.
You can find the page at:
<http://www.aclu.org/features/f032001a.html>

And here's our media advisory:

Trial Begins Monday in ACLU Challenge to Government Censorship of Internet
in Libraries

CONTACT: Emily Whitfield, ACLU Nat'l Office
(212) 549-2566 or cell phone (917) 686-4542
Stefan Presser, ACLU of PA, (215) 592-1513, ext. 116

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, March 21, 2002

PHILADELPHIA--In a nine-day trial set to begin on Monday, the American Civil
Liberties Union will argue that a federal law that forces libraries to
censor constitutionally protected speech online is unconstitutional and
should be permanently struck down.

At issue is the Children's Internet Protection Act, a federal law passed in
December 2000 that ties crucial library funding to the mandated use of
blocking programs on Internet terminals used by both adults and minors in
public libraries.

The ACLU will present testimony from librarians, library patrons, website
authors and experts on web blocking programs. On Monday, Ginnie Cooper,
Director of Multnomah County Public Library in Oregon will testify. On
Tuesday, the court will hear from 16-year-old Emma Rood, a patron of the
Oregon library, among others. Note: Witnesses will be available for
interview only after they have completed their testimony.

The ACLU has created a comprehensive web page for the case that includes a
list of the daily trial witnesses and their bios, legal papers, expert
reports, and examples of wrongly blocked websites, online at
http://www.aclu.org/features/f032001a.html

The case is Multnomah County Library vs. United States of America, No.
01-CV-1322. Multnomah County and others are represented by the ACLU. The
American Library Association has filed a similar challenge on behalf of its
members; the two cases have been consolidated by the court and will be heard
together by a three-judge panel.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------

Who: ACLU attorneys Ann Beeson, Chris Hansen, Stefan Presser and Kevin
Bankston, on behalf of libraries, library patrons and website authors.

What: Challenge to Children's Internet Protection Act

When: Monday, March 25 - Thursday, April 4, 2002; trial begins at 9:15 a.m.
on Monday

Where: U.S. Courthouse, 601 Market Street (at 6th Street) Philadelphia, PA,
in Judge Bartle's courtroom, Room 16-A




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