By Mark Ellis
Senior Correspondent, ASSIST News ServiceSACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA (ANS) – Sacramento public libraries will continue allowing patrons to view on-line pornography, a local governing board decided recently.

Sacramento public libraries will continue allowing patrons to view on-line pornography, a local governing board decided recently.The Sacramento Public Library Authority (SPLA) Board voted 5-4 to continue allowing customers to access online pornography at taxpayer expense. The SPLA Board decided that offering greater privacy, such as recessed screens, was a sufficient response to concerns raised by parents and librarians that adult access to porn harms children who use the library. The SPLA Board consists of all five members of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors and four members of the Sacramento City Council. The issue of taxpayer-funded access to online porn in Sacramento provoked a battle between lawyers from the ACLU and the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI).

PJI attorney Matthew McReynolds called the vote a face-saving half-measure that failed to address a critical issue: “Recessed screens and more discreet locations for adult computers don’t change the fact that the library system is throwing out the welcome mat for sex offenders and pedophiles,” he said.

“The youngest, most innocent among us are being sacrificed on the altar of pseudo-free speech,” McReynolds said. He cited a recent Supreme Court decision, U.S. v. American Library Association, in support of filtered online access at libraries and also cited numerous investigative reports from around the nation documenting an alarming increase in sex crimes taking place at libraries.

ACLU attorney Allen Asch, a co-founder of the local branch of the ACLU, spoke in opposition to limits on porn in libraries. Asch argued that it was important for taxpayer-funded libraries to provide free access to online pornography for the homeless, who could not otherwise afford it or have homes of their own in which to view it.

Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, commented, “We strongly disagree with the ACLU’s position that the First Amendment requires taxpayer funding of access to pornography. Especially in the context of a library, this is highly irresponsible.” He said he hoped other communities will not make the same mistakes.”