News from the ACLU of WA 

Library Internet Filter

WA Library prevents access to such sites as YouTube and KindnessUSA

The ACLU is representing three library users and a nonprofit organization in the lawsuit (Bradburn v. NCRL) filed in 2006 to ensure that patrons of the five-county North Central Regional Library (NCRL) in eastern Washington have access to useful and constitutionally protected information. The lawsuit challenges the library system’s policy of refusing to honor requests by adult patrons to temporarily disable a filter on public computers for sessions of reading and research.

The policy impacts residents in a largely rural area who rely on the public library for Internet access. NCRL has set its filter to block access to an ever-shifting list of websites. Sites that the library’s filter has blocked adults from viewing include: 

· the website of an organization encouraging individuals to commit random acts of kindness (www.kindnessusa.org)

· the Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra website

· the website of an organization encouraging women to carry to term by creating “a supportive   environment for women in crisis situations to be introduced to the love of Christ” (www.acceptpregnancy.org)

· YouTube

“Community libraries are a valuable resource for a wide variety of information. Libraries should not deny adults using publicly available computers the opportunity to view research material and other lawful information,” said ACLU Legal Director Sarah Dunne.

 The North Central Regional Library District operates 28 community libraries in Chelan, Douglas, Ferry, Grant, and Okanogan Counties. The NCRL has used a blocking software product called FortiGuard to filter Internet content on all public computers at its branch libraries. The NCRL has configured FortiGuard to block a broad array of lawful information, and the NCRL refuses to commit to promptly unblocking sites for patrons.

The lawsuit contends that the library system’s policy of refusing to disable its Internet filters at the request of adults who wish to conduct bona fide research or to access the Web for other lawful purposes violates the United States and Washington State Constitutions. The suit seeks an order directing the NCRL to disable its Internet filter when adults request it.

 Libraries that receive funds for Internet access under two specific federal programs are required to have the ability to block minors from seeing materials deemed “harmful to minors.” The US Supreme Court has interpreted the law to mean that libraries may disable those filters upon the request of an adult. But NCRL has adopted a policy of blocking access for adults to all materials it deems inappropriate for children.

 Under the state constitution, people in Washington have the right to “freely speak, write and publish on all subjects” (Article I, Section 5). NCRL’s policy of full-time filtering for adults is overbroad, and the library has no reasonable justification for denying adult patrons access to the substantial amount of information it blocks.

The US District Court in Spokane has requested that the Washington Supreme Court provide guidance on the state constitutional issues raised in the case. Still pending a decision by the federal court are the issues raised under the US Constitution.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are:

· Sarah Bradburn, a resident of Republic in Ferry County, who has been blocked from using NCRL computers to research an academic assignment about youth tobacco usage while studying at Eastern Washington University to become a drug and alcohol counselor. Because she had no Internet access at home, she had to travel to Spokane to use its library’s computers for the information she sought.

· Pearl Cherrington, a resident of Twisp in Okanogan County, a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and outdoor scenes who has been blocked from using NCRL computers to conduct research on art galleries and health issues. NCRL filters also blocked her from access to YouTube.

· Charles Heinlen, a resident of Okanogan in Okanogan County, who has been blocked from using NCRL computers to access the blog he maintains on MySpace, as well information relating to firearms use by hunters, fine arts, and other lawful information.

· The Second Amendment Foundation, a nonprofit organization with more than 600,000 members nationwide and headquarters in Bellevue. The Foundation undertakes education, research, publishing, and legal action focusing on the constitutional right to own and possess firearms. The NCRL has blocked access to the Foundation-sponsored magazine Women & Guns.• 
 
 

Settlement Reached For UW Art Professor

Others have also been wrongly detained for taking photos in public places

 

A University of Washington professor who was frisked, handcuffed, and detained for taking photographs of power lines as part of an art project has received a payment of $8,000 in a settlement of her lawsuit against the City of Snohomish. The ACLU of Washington represented Shirley Scheier in seeking redress for her wrongful detention by Snohomish police.

The settlement came after the US District Court in Seattle last year found that officers “lacked a reasonable justification for their aggressive tactics in completely restraining Scheier’s personal liberty.”  Scheier’s experience highlights a pattern of law enforcement officers harassing people engaged in taking pictures in public.

“Taking photographs of objects or people in plain view is not a crime. Police should not presume that it is a suspicious act, and should not overreact by detaining people for taking pictures,” said ACLU-WA Legal Director Sarah Dunne.

Shirley Scheier is a 55-year-old artist and Associate Professor of Fine Art at the University of Washington who often uses photos of public land and public structures in her artistic prints. An exhibit of her work currently is showing at Richard Hugo House on Capitol Hill until June 21.

In October 2005, Scheier drove to Snohomish and stopped to take pictures of the power towers at a substation near downtown, from outside the facility’s gate. She was on public property, and there were no signs indicating that photography was not allowed.

As she drove home on State Highway 9, Snohomish police pulled her over. More officers arrived soon, began to question her about her pictures and said her behavior was “suspicious.” Scheier explained that she is a university faculty member interested in power lines as part of our ecosystem and cooperated with officers’ requests.

Nevertheless, police frisked and handcuffed Scheier, and placed her in the back of a police car for almost half an hour. The incident was upsetting to Scheier, who as a professor was concerned that her students not have their rights violated when they went out to do field work.

In rejecting the city’s motion for summary judgment which would have ended the case, the federal district court in November 2008 found that the officers’ actions had likely violated Scheier’s rights. “An individual’s fundamental Fourth Amendment right to be free from ‘unreasonable searches and seizures’ does not dissipate merely because of generalized, unsubstantiated suspicions of terrorist activity,” wrote Judge John Coughenhour.

ACLU cooperating attorneys Venkat Balasubramani and Steven Fogg and Christina Dimmock of Corr Cronin Michelson Baumgardner & Preece LLP represented Scheier.

In 2007 the ACLU obtained compensation from the city of Seattle for Bogdan Mohora, who was wrongfully arrested for taking photographs of police making an arrest in downtown Seattle.

Other photographers also have complained to the ACLU about being harassed by law enforcement since 9/11, as a result of misplaced fears of terrorism. In 2004, the ACLU assisted photography student Ian Spiers, who was questioned by law enforcement for taking pictures at the Ballard Locks, a popular tourist destination. In 2005, the ACLU assisted a photographer when King County Sheriff’s deputies seized the memory card in his camera for taking pictures of artwork in the Seattle bus tunnel.•