Filed at 3:23 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration renewed its legal fight against Internet pornography on Thursday, asking the Supreme Court to permit Congress to pressure public libraries to block sexually explicit Web sites.

A three-judge panel in Philadelphia last month struck down the Children's Internet Protection Act, which would have taken effect next month. The law, signed by President Clinton in 2000, required libraries to install software filters on Internet computers or risk the loss of federal funds.

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Public schools and school libraries are still subject to the law.

The Justice Department, acting on behalf of the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, formally notified the Supreme Court on Thursday it will appeal last month's ruling.

The panel from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled unanimously that the law relies on filtering programs that also block sites on politics, health, science and other topics that should not be suppressed. Its decision was the third time since 1996 that courts have struck down U.S. laws aimed at keeping youngsters from seeing Internet pornography.

``Given the crudeness of filtering technology, any technology protection measure mandated by CIPA will necessarily block access to a substantial amount of speech whose suppression serves no legitimate government interest,'' the judges wrote.

Under the law, adults could have asked for librarians to turn off the filters. But the court said some patrons might be too embarrassed to ask, and librarians may not know how.

Justice Department lawyers have argued that Internet smut is so pervasive that protections are necessary to keep it away from youngsters, and that the law simply calls for libraries to use the same care in selecting online content that they use for books and magazines.

They also pointed out that libraries could turn down federal funding if they want to provide unfiltered Web access.

Critics of filter technology have argued that the software still is easily tricked into accidentally blocking Web sites that are not pornographic.