Supreme Court Rejects Internet Case
The Supreme Court said Wednesday it will not consider reviving a controversial Internet child safety law that lower courts have struck down as unconstitutional. The Child Online Protection Act, which would have prohibited Web sites from making harmful content available to minors, passed Congress in 1998 but has never taken effect. Sites would have been expected to require a credit card number or other proof of age. Penalties for noncompliance included a $50,000 fine and up to six months in prison.
A Philadelphia federal judge in 2007 rejected an attempt by the Justice Department to renew the ban, stating that parents can protect their children through software filters and other less restrictive means that do not limit the rights of adults to free speech. That ruling was upheld by an appeals court last year. The justices offered no comment on their decision to reject the Bush administration's appeal.
First Amendment advocates cheered the news. "This finally puts a nail in the coffin of the government's quixotic effort to censor content on the Internet," Center for Democracy and Technology President Leslie Harris said. American Civil Liberties Union attorney Aden Fine added that the court's decision not to hear the case "reinforces that government should not be deciding what people can look at on the Internet -- those decisions should be made by individual and their families." "We're hopeful that Congress will not try to enact a new federal law censoring protected speech on the Internet," Fine said. "If Congress does [act], the ACLU will obviously take a close look at it."
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