Supreme Court strikes down Internet smut law

June 26, 1997
Web posted at: 11:29 a.m. EDT (1529 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Communications Decency Act on Thursday, arguing that some provisions of the federal law amounted to illegal government censorship.

The ruling was the high court's first decision involving the rapidly expanding Internet, the global computer network that connects an estimated 40 million people using more than 9.4 million computers worldwide.

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Full text of the Supreme Court decision

The court was unanimous in saying that a key provision of the law criminalizing the display of indecent material that could be seen by minors violated the Constitution's First Amendment protections of free speech. On other aspects of the law the court's vote was 7-2.

WIRED Magazine's Todd Lappin reacts to the decision:
	165K/15 sec. AIFF or WAV sound

The court's decision finding the law unconstitutional was not unexpected given the tenor of the arguments against the CDA. Opponents had argued that the definition of indecency was too vague and that enforcing the law would infringe on First Amendment rights to free speech.

The act, passed as a part of massive 1996 telecommunications reform legislation and defended by President Clinton, was devised to protect children from indecent materials on the Internet.

The White House said it expected the ruling.

It said Clinton planned to call on content providers and the computer industry to take a more active role in self-policing Internet-posted material and helping parents find easy ways to block objectionable Web sites.

The law would have made it a crime punishable by two years in prison and a $250,000 fine to transmit indecent material over the Internet to minors. The measure was blocked last year by a three-judge court in Philadelphia.

"The vagueness of such a regulation raises special First Amendment concerns because of its obvious chilling effect on free speech."

— Justice John Paul Stevens

Writing the majority opinion for the court, Justice John Paul Stevens said, "We agree with the three-judge district court that the statute abridges the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment."

"The (Communications Decency Act) is a content-based regulation of speech," he wrote. "The vagueness of such a regulation raises special First Amendment concerns because of its obvious chilling effect on free speech."

"As a matter of constitutional tradition ... we presume that governmental regulation of the content of speech is more likely to interfere with the free exchange of ideas than to encourage it," Stevens wrote.

The court also noted that there were other means to protect children from harmful materials on the Internet, including filtering software -- which computer industry representatives have argued does a better job of protecting children than government policing of the computer network would.

Stevens' opinion was joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor agreed that the law was unconstitutional in that it would restrict adults' access to material they otherwise would be entitled to see. Writing for the two, O'Connor said they would invalidate the law only in those circumstances.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.