The Washington Post is reporting that the Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to uphold the "Children's Internet Protection Act" (CIPA) that was ruled unconstitutional by a federal court because it would have required libraries to block access to sites that contained pornography. If libraries refused to block these sites, they would be ineligible for federal funds.
The CIPA case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the American Library Association. Their argument centered around the belief that CIPA would prevent adult library patrons from accessing constitutionally protected speech. However, the Justice Department is arguing that the law does not violate the First Amendment because local communities will have control over how filtering technology should be used.