Tag: Supreme Court
Protecting health privacy in the age of digital surveillance
With the Supreme Court apparently set to overturn Roe v. Wade, patrons may turn to libraries for help seeking information about reproductive health options in private. The ethics of our profession mandate that we do so. We can help patrons by teaching them how to protect their digital privacy on their own devices and ensuring our public computers employ the strongest, most up-to-date protections.
Board of Education v. Pico: Forty years of First Amendment Legacy
On June 25, 1982, the Supreme Court announced their decision regarding the authority of school boards to censor materials in school libraries in Board of Education v. Pico. Now, on the 40th anniversary of their landmark decision, we are seeing an unprecedented wave of challenges. What happened with the Pico decision? And will it help us now?
‘The Right of a Woman to Her Own Person:’ Interview with ‘Jane Against the World’ Author Karen Blumenthal
Abortion rights is a topic that some teachers may choose to avoid or be prohibited from teaching. Karen Blumenthal’s latest book, “Jane Against the World,” provides students with a well-researched and nuanced history of reproductive rights in America, connecting to larger issues of poverty, racism, and gender and workplace discrimination. Learn more about the censorship she experienced while researching Texas state documents as well as experiences with censorship related to her books.
When the Censors go to Court
By Guest Contributor Richard Price – On 2 May 2019, a group led by a Watchung Hills High School student and his father sued the school (and various administrators and educators). The student asserted that he “suffered damages as a result of being required to read Fun Home including emotional, psychological and other damages.”
Intellectual Freedom for the Incarcerated
The incarcerated are an oft-forgotten demographic, but this quality shouldn’t dampen their fundamental human-rights. For US prisoners, access to library materials is wrought with roadblocks built by a tumultuous past.
Carpenter v. United States: A Battle for Privacy Rights
As part of a 2011 robbery investigation, law enforcement obtained location data from Timothy Carpenter without a warrant. After his subsequent arrest, Carpenter appealed the decision as a breach of his Fourth Amendment rights, and the case has been heard by the Supreme Court. As technologies like cell phones collect increasing loads of data about us, and as that data paints a more detailed picture of our everyday lives, have privacy laws become outdated?
Supreme Court denies review of COPA decision
Today, the Supreme Court refused to review the July 2008 appellate court decision that ruled the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) unconstitutional. The law would have barred publication of a […]