Orland Park Library battle over pornography offers many First Amendment lessons

Have you been following the Orland Patch stories about the Mokena mom upset about an incident she claims happened at the Orland Park Library? The recap is that a Mokena woman was in the Orland Park Library and claimed to have seen a man looking at pornography on a library computer. The details are a bit sketchy as she seems the change them often. First it was one man. Later it grew to three different men. She was unhappy with the Orland Park Library's response when she reported the incident. Now she's on a crusade against the Orland Park Library.

The problem with this entire crusade is that she's wrong. She wants the library to install filters to prevent anyone from accessing pornography in the adult computer area. The right to view pornography has long been established by the Supreme Court as explained in plain English by the First Amendment Center and Net Safe Kids. Whether she likes it or not, it is the law of the land.

You don't have to like the fact that it is a First Amendment right to view pornography. You do have to accept it as the law of our land. The Supreme Court has been reluctant to limit access to what some might call "distasteful expression."

An April 21, 2010, Washington Post article about an unrelated First Amendment case stated that "The 8 to 1 ruling, written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., was a ringing endorsement of the First Amendment's protection of even distasteful expression. Roberts called "startling and dangerous" the government's argument that the value of certain categories of speech should be weighed against their societal costs when protecting free speech."

I find it ironic that this Mokena mom doesn't seem to understand that the only reason she an express her views at all is because of the First Amendment. In fact, she benefits from the First Amendment in many ways.

She was allowed to speak before the Orland Park Library Board. She is uploading videos to YouTube in an effort to sway public opinion against the library board. She wrote an article called "Are public schools modern alters for child sacrifice?" In this article she compares public schools to child abuse, and decried global warming as a scientific tall tale. And, she is able to do all of these things because of her First Amendment rights.

The library is correct that it is within a patron's First Amendment rights to view pornography. The place where this entire incident went wrong was with the library staffs' response to the Mokena mom's complaint.

The library needs a clear policy stating the steps it will take if a patron is viewing material others find objectionably. According to the Orland Patch, this is the Palos Park policy, "The Palos Park Public Library’s computer-use policy does not explicitly state that viewing pornography is forbidden, according to their staff, but it does mention that a patron disturbed by actions or behavior of another patron can ask a library employee to intervene. If the patron doesn’t cooperate, he or she will have to leave. Palos Park’s library has five computers, three of which are for adults, which are visible to most of the space."

In my world, pornography is only one of the objectionable possibilities. I don't want our daughters viewing materials from organizations ranging from the KKK to the anti-abortion leagues. I would be equally uncomfortable sitting next to someone who is viewing those websites as I would be sitting next to someone viewing pornography.

If the Mokena mom really wants to provide a public service, she might try to work with the Orland Park Library staff to improve the response she received. She might try to research the topic and provide some real facts, rather than just restate her flexible version of a single event. She might try to educate parents about the issue through community workshops.

Instead she has embarked on a public temper tantrum because the Orland Park Library is upholding the First Amendment rather than caving to her social media campaign.

It seems to me that this Mokena mom needs to learn a very important lesson before she can be an effective agent for change. The First Amendment guarantees that your voice can be heard. It doesn't mean you'll always get your way. Until she understands that her right to be heard in the public forum doesn't mean she'll always get her way, all she's doing is making noise.