WP: Court to Hear Case on Web Porn

[CShine]

The Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will decide whether a 1998 law designed to shield children from Internet pornography violates the First Amendment, propelling a six-year-old legal battle over free speech in cyberspace into what might be a conclusive phase.

The Child Online Protection Act (COPA), passed by Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton, makes it a crime for a commercial Web site to put material that is "harmful to minors" where children younger than 17 can gain access to it, unless the site has made a good faith effort to screen out all but adult users.

COPA has never taken effect, however, because opponents led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenged it in court, winning judicial orders that blocked its enforcement on the ground that it would force Web publishers to give up some of their constitutional rights to communicate adult material to adults.

The lengthy struggle has illustrated how difficult it can be for Congress and the president to respond to public concern about the Internet's effect on children without running afoul of the Constitution -- and how difficult it can be for courts to define the precise meaning of the Constitution in the fast-changing world of the Internet.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26735-2003Oct14.html

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Clarence Thomas...

Is doing extensive research on this, as we speak. ;-)