On Monday, October 28, Virginia's Internet "harmful to minors" statute was back in court. Before a three-judge panel in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, the state of Virginia asked that a U.S. District Court's judgment that permanently enjoined a statute criminalizing Internet communications deemed harmful to minors be overturned and the statute reinstated.
The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) has joined three other free expression groups in suing the Department of Justice to learn how many subpoenas have been issued to bookstores, libraries, and newspapers under the USA Patriot Act. The suit was filed on October 24 and comes after a lack of response from the Department of Justice to a Freedom of Information Act (FIOA) request, filed in August, for the information.
In the face of a challenge from the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and other national free expression organizations, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) has dropped its demand that two student groups -- one a collective that runs a bookstore -- pull links from their Web sites. The university had called for Groundwork Books and the Che Café Collective to make the changes to the Web sites because the links allegedly violated the USA Patriot Act.
The week of September 21-28 is declared Banned Book Week by the American Library Association and other organizations interested in publicizing attempts to ban books in schools and libraries.
Except for a concern about the future of democracy, I don't understand what the fuss is about. Ban all the books, I say.
Authors Pat Conroy, Dave Barry, Connie May Fowler, and Cassandra King will speak at a Banned Books Week fundraiser at Books & Books, Coral Gables, on Saturday, September 21 at 8:00 p.m. The event is being held on the first day of Banned Books Week (September 21-28), the only national celebration of the freedom to read.
Again this year, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) will be a sponsor of Banned Books Week, the only national celebration of First Amendment rights. In 2001, over 1,000 independent booksellers and 2,500 libraries participated in Banned Books Week, and, once again, participating booksellers report that Banned Books Week is one of their customers' favorite promotions.
In a First Amendment Center/American Journalism Review survey, nearly half of those responding said they think the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees. And about the same number said the American press has been too aggressive in asking government officials for information about the war on terrorism. Full survey results are available at www.freedomforum.org.
On August 21, two days after House Judiciary Committee Chair F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin) threatened to subpoena Attorney General John Ashcroft over the Justice Department's refusal to divulge information on the USA Patriot Act, civil liberties groups filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the department.
After refusing a Congressional demand to reveal, among other things, how many subpoenas the Justice Department has issued under the USA Patriot Act to bookstores, libraries, and newspapers, Attorney General John Ashcroft might find himself served with a subpoena. That, at least, was a threat levied by Representative F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.
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The week of September 21-28 is declared Banned Book Week by the American Library Association and other organizations interested in publicizing attempts to ban books in schools and libraries.