You forget, we are all now part of one big collective, except for those of us who are more equal (see other court hijinx from today).
The ruling states "The 5-4 ruling reinstates a law that told libraries to install filters or surrender federal money."
They don't have to use any mandated filters - but they don't get any Fed. $$ if they don't.
The problem is that many local library boards are beholden to the American Library Association...and see nothing wrong with obscenity on internet sites.
When approached by the concept of full filtering in our public library, the chairman of the board said, "Who is to say that pornography is not educational?"
We did get full filtering in our library...but the whole process made me realize that library boards should be elected by the community rather than being appointed by a mayor. Library board candidates would be forced to express their ideologies.
Communities would have libraries that reflected community values and it would lessen the clout of the American Library Association.
Actually community standards still play an enormous role. In reference to another post you made about how different librarians will interpret this differently, that is EXACTLY where the law states community standards come into play. The only material that libraries absolutely have to filter is illegal material (ex. hard-core, rape sites, bestiality, child pornography). The rest is up to the library board/community standards to decide (Erotica, gambling, cults, drugs, hacking, etc)
I should be able to bring my teenager to the adult section of the library to find a book without being flashed with live sex shows on large computer screens that one MUST pass to get to the stacks. --How many times has that happened?--
Actually very frequently and in quite significant ways involving children. Groups working on filtering issues in libraries began requesting the complaint logs that libraries were keeping on these incidents. They were very successful under the "Freedom of Information Act" in the beginning and were able to obtain the records showing the high level of these problems. The ACLU/ALA then began cooperating to prevent examination of records like this and began destroying the logs and in many cases convinced libraries to stop keeping any such records at all. I have a very large document that compiled the patron complaints and would be happy to send it to anyone who freepmails me for it.
There were many incidents that involved children. Some cases were simply those where children were accidentally exposed to hard-core porn by walking by, some children were enticed over to the computers by men there, some children came across hard-core porn that was left at the printers and there were cases of children grabbed physically and pulled over to computers. There were also a few cases of children frightened by men exposing themselves and some rare cases of kids molested at the library by patrons who had just been at the computers.
That's exactly the problem. In too many communities, there seems to be absolutely no standards. Or, in other words, too many communities appear to have an "anything goes" attitude.
The intrusion is giving federal money to public libraries. This is just a change to that intrusion--I'll leave it up to you to decide whether putting a condition to the gift is a reduction or increase in the amount of intrusion...