FC: Rep. Ernest Istook says Supreme Ct. will uphold library filtering

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Fat chance. --Declan]

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STATEMENT OF BARBARA COMSTOCK, U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT:
"The Department of Justice is now reviewing the ruling issued today by the 
three-judge district court in American Library Association v. United States 
of America.  The Justice Department is disappointed by the court's 
declaration that the Childrens' Internet Protection Act violates the First 
Amendment, and the Department is currently reviewing the ruling in 
connection with an appeal of that ruling."  Note: An appeal to the Supreme 
Court must be filed within 20 days of the ruling.

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IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Micah Swafford
May 31, 2002
202-225-2132

Istook Confident CIPA Decision Will Be Overturned

Washington, DC --  Congressman Ernest Istook (R-OK) expressed confidence 
that the Supreme Court will overturn today's ruling by a three-judge panel 
on the Children's Internet Protection Act.  Istook was one of the principal 
authors of the legislation to require obscenity-blocking software on 
computers in public schools and libraries to which children have access.

The legislation included a provision requiring any challenge to proceed 
directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"The plantiffs selected a venue they knew would be sympathetic, the same 
court which struck down several other legislative attempts to protect our 
children from obscenity,"  said Istook.  "The Supreme Court has previously 
recognized that taxpayers can decide what they what and will not fund, and 
nobody has a legal right to subsidized pornography.  This ruling indicates 
that the only way to stop libraries from providing children with access to 
Internet obscenity would be to stop giving them funds to provide the 
access.  Nobody wants that to happen.  I have every confidence that the 
Supreme Court will apply common sense and the Constitution and overturn 
this extreme decision."

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