WASHINGTON - In what could emerge as the first constitutional challenge to the use of blocking software in libraries, a citizens group in northern Virginia says it will likely file suit against the county library board regarding its strict new Net access policy.
The group, Mainstream Loudoun, is protesting rules approved Monday by the county's library board to install blocking software on library terminals. The board also decided, in a 5-4 vote, that anyone under 18 must have written permission from a parent or guardian to get on the Internet, and that library computer terminals must be installed "at close proximity to, and in full view of, the library staff."
"We believe there is a concerted effort by an organized minority to control protected speech that they find offensive or controversial, and the Internet policy is simply another step in that direction," said Jeri McGiverin of Mainstream Loudoun.
McGiverin said the group is consulting with its attorneys, and called the recent library board rules restricting adult access to materials on the Internet "clearly unconstitutional."
But the powers-that-be in Loudoun don't seem to agree. The county board of supervisors last week passed a resolution, also 5-4, in support of the library board's new policies. In the resolution, the board of supervisors agreed to "support efforts to limit public funds from being used [to] purchase magazines, books, or to access Internet sites that are pornographic."
Civil libertarians say the Loudoun rules are the most restrictive in the country. Not only will the county library system block obscenity, but "material deemed harmful to juveniles under applicable Virginia statutes and legal precedents (soft-core pornography)." And, in an unusual twist, the board said the policy of restricting soft-core porn is protected by the Civil Rights Act's provision regarding sexual harassment.
"It was not a particularly glorious moment," said Jim Burton, a member of the board of supervisors who voted against the new policy. "I'm not interested in our county becoming a test case, because it would be very expensive. And the sexual harassment argument is weak, in my opinion."
Regardless of the civil-rights argument, civil libertarians say that because the blocking software cannot be disabled by adults, the library policy is a violation of First Amendment rights.
"The Supreme Court has said that, other than obscenity, the government does not have a right to censor," said Kent Willis, director of Virginia's American Civil Liberties Union. "This is clearly a violation of that."
