United States v. American Library Ass'n

United States v. American Library Association
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 5, 2003 Decided June 23, 2003
Full case name	United States, et al., Appellants v. American Library Association, Inc., et al.
Citations	539 U.S. 194 (more) 123 S. Ct. 2297; 156 L. Ed. 2d 221
Argument	Oral argument
Case history
Prior	201 F. Supp. 2d 401 (E.D. Pa. 2002); probable jurisdiction noted, 537 U.S. 1017 (2002).
Holding
Congress has the authority to require public schools and libraries to censor internet content in order to receive federal funding.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy David Souter · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinions
Plurality	Rehnquist, joined by O'Connor, Scalia, Thomas
Concurrence	Kennedy (in judgment)
Concurrence	Breyer (in judgment)
Dissent	Stevens
Dissent	Souter, joined by Ginsburg
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. I; Children's Internet Protection Act

United States v. American Library Association, 539 U.S. 194 (2003), was a decision in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that the United States Congress has the authority to require public schools and libraries receiving E-Rate discounts to install web filtering software as a condition of receiving federal funding. In a plurality opinion, the Supreme Court ruled that public school and library usage of Internet filtering software does not violate their patrons' First Amendment free speech rights and that the Children's Internet Protection Act is not unconstitutional.^[1]