The Communications Decency Act is Unconstitutional!
Background
On Thursday Feb 1, 1996, Congress approved legislation to dramatically restrict
the First Amendment rights of Internet users. This legislation, known as the
"Communications Decency Act" is part of the
telecommunications reform bill which President Clinton signed into law on
Thursday Feburary 8, 1996.
The constitutionality of the CDA was challenged by
the American Civil Liberties Union,
the American Library Association, the
Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition(CIEC)
and 45,000 of us internet users.
On June 12, 1996, the Federal District Court in Philadelphia declared
the CDA "unconstitutional on its face".
Appeal
The government appealed
the decision [253K]
to the Supreme Court, which agreed on Dec 6, 1996, to hear the case
(Reno v. ACLU, et al.).
It will be argued before the Court on March 19, 1997. The CIEC filed
its brief
[114K] before the Court on Feb 20.
Resources
The Citizens Internet Empowerment
Coalition maintains an
up-to-date web site with the latest news about the fight against the CDA.
The text of the CDA is available in the THOMAS databases of the U. S. Congress
as
part of the bill S.652 (Public Law 104-104). [When you get to the list of
public laws in the 104th Congress, click the line that begins 104-101, which
will take you to a page where you can click on public law 104. S.652 to read
the law.]
The Center for Democracy and Technology
maintains a www page on the effort to defeat the
Communication Decency Act.
The Voters Telecommunications Watch
also maintains a page on the CDA:
What is the (CDA) Communications Decency Act?
Here you can find the results of the roll call vote in the Senate
that passed the Act on 6/14/95.