03/02/2020 UNITED STATES V. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSN., INC. We need not decide this question because, even assuming that appellees may assert an “unconstitutional conditions” claim, this claim would fail on the merits. Within broad limits, “when the Government appropriates public funds to establish a program it is entitled to define the limits of that program.” Rust v. Sullivan, 500 U.S. 173, 194 (1991). In Rust, Congress had appropriated federal funding for family planning services and forbidden the use of such funds in programs that provided abortion counseling. Id., at 178. Recipients of these funds challenged this restriction, arguing that it impermissibly conditioned the receipt of a benefit on the relinquishment of their constitutional right to engage in abortion counseling. Id., at 196. We rejected that claim, recognizing that “the Government [was] not denying a benefit to anyone, but [was] instead simply insisting that public funds be spent for the purposes for which they were authorized.” Ibid. The same is true here. The E-rate and LSTA programs were intended to help public libraries fulfill their traditional role of obtaining material of requisite and appropriate quality for educational and informational purposes.5 Congress may certainly insist that these “public funds be spent for the purposes for which they were authorized.” Ibid. Especially because public libraries have traditionally excluded pornographic material from their other collections, Congress could reasonably impose a parallel limitation on its Internet assistance programs. As the use of filtering software helps to carry out these programs, it is a permissible condition under Rust. Justice Stevens asserts the premise that “[a] federal statute penalizing a library for failing to install filtering software on every one of its Internet-accessible computers would unquestionably violate [the First] Amendment.” Post, at 8. See also post, at 12. But–assuming again that public libraries have First Amendment rights–CIPA does not “penalize” libraries that choose not to install such software, or deny them the right to provide their patrons with unfiltered Internet access. Rather, CIPA simply reflects Congress’ decision not to subsidize their doing so. To the extent that libraries wish to offer unfiltered access, they are free to do so without federal assistance. “ ‘A refusal to fund protected activity, without more, cannot be equated with the imposition of a ‘penalty’ on that activity.’ ” Rust, supra, at 193 (quoting Harris v. McRae, 448 U.S. 297, 317, n. 19 (1980)). “ ‘[A] legislature’s decision not to subsidize the exercise of a; fundamental; right does not infringe the right. Rust, supra, at 193 (quoting Regan v. Taxation With Representation of Wash., 461 U.S. 540, 549 (1983)).6 Appellees mistakenly contend, in reliance on Legal Services Corporation v. Velazquez, 531 U.S. 533 (2001), that CIPA’s filtering conditions “[d]istor[t] the [u]sual [f]unctioning of [p]ublic [l]ibraries.” Brief for Appellees ALA et al. 40 (citing Velazquez, supra, at 543); Brief for Appellees Multnomah et al. 47—48 (same). In Velazquez, the Court concluded that a Government program of furnishing legal aid to the indigent differed from the program in Rust “[i]n th[e] vital respect” that the role of lawyers who represent clients in welfare disputes is to advocate against the Government, and there was thus an assumption that counsel would be free of state control. 531 U.S., at 542—543. The Court concluded that the restriction on advocacy in such welfare disputes would distort the usual functioning of the legal profession https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-361.ZO.html 8/13