Washington State Supreme Court Hears Internet Filtering Case

June 23, 2009

Oral arguments: Sarah Bradburn et al. v. North Central Regional Library District (Under the WA Constitution, must a library disable its internet filter to allow adult access to constitutionally protected content?).

The Washington state Supreme Court heard arguments June 23 in a challenge to the internet filtering policy of the North Central Regional Library, headquartered in Wenatchee. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit in 2006 on behalf of three library users and the pro-firearm Second Amendment Foundation, seeking that the library be required to disable its filters when requested by an adult for research or other lawful purposes, as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court when it upheld he Children’s Internet Protection Act in 2003.

Plaintiffs in Bradburn v. North Central Regional Library include a woman who sought to research on tobacco use by youth, a professional photographer blocked from using YouTube, and a man unable to access his own blog or locate information on gun use by hunters. The Second Amendment Foundation says the library blocked online access to its magazine Women and Guns.

Although no timeframe was announced for when the court will issue its ruling, attorneys speculated that the decision could take months, the Wenatchee World reported June 23.

—Gordon Flagg, American Libraries Online Posted on June 25, 2009.