Reno V American Civil Liberties Union

Court Found Cda Vague Overreaching In Prohibiting First Amendment

Finally, because the Internet is on all the time and is a worldwide entity, CDA regulations are underinclusive in protecting children from objectionable materials and overinclusive in protecting adults First Amendment rights.

The Court also concluded that the terms indecent and patently offensive in the CDA were ambiguous and vague and reached far beyond the unprotected speech covered by Miller v. California.

B Irreparable Harm By Denial Of Relief

The second prong of our preliminary injunction analysis requires us to consider “whether the movant will be irreparably harmed by denial of the relief.” Allegheny Energy, Inc. v. DQE, Inc. 171 F.3d 153, 158 . Generally, “n a First Amendment challenge, a plaintiff who meets the first prong of the test for a preliminary injunction will almost certainly meet the second, since irreparable injury normally arises out of the deprivation of speech rights.” Reno I, 929 F. Supp. 824 at 866. This case is no exception.

If a preliminary injunction were not to issue, COPA-affected Web publishers would most assuredly suffer irreparable harm the curtailment of their constitutionally protected right to free speech. As the Supreme Court has clearly stated, “the loss of First Amendment freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury.” Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347, 373 . We, therefore, conclude that this element of our preliminary injunction analysis has been satisfied.

Dissent Said Cda Is Like A Zoning Law Creating ‘adult Zones’ On The Internet

In her partial dissent, Justice Sandra Day OConnor, joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, viewed the CDA as a zoning law, creating separate adult zones on the Internet.

Because she found the current Internet technology insufficient for ensuring that minors could be excluded while still providing adults full access to protected content, she viewed the CDA as ultimately unconstitutional, while permitting such a law at some point in the future when Internet zoning was technologically feasible.

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List Of United States Supreme Court Cases Volume 521

This is a list of all the cases from volume 521 of the :

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Howard Distinguished Endowed Professor Of Media Management And Law And Beaman Professor Of Communication

In the ensuing years, less attention has been focused on the factual underpinnings of the case, which still represent the most detailed view of internet development that the court has ever provided. Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote the opinion, presented historical and technical aspects of internet development to illustrate its expansive nature and popularity. The language may seem a bit elementary, but the basic framework remains the same today:

Anyone with access to the Internet may take advantage of a wide variety of communication and information retrieval methods. These methods are constantly evolving and difficult to categorize precisely. But, as presently constituted, those most relevant to this case are electronic mail , automatic mailing list services newsgroups, chat rooms, and the World Wide Web. All of these methods can be used to transmit text most can transmit sound, pictures, and moving video images. Taken together, these tools constitute a unique medium known to its users as cyberspace located in no particular geographical location but available to anyone, anywhere in the world, with access to the Internet.

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Reno V American Civil Liberties Union 96511

521 U.S. 844 117 S.Ct. 2329 138 L.Ed.2d 874

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION et al.

No. 96-511.Supreme Court of the United StatesSyllabus

Held: The CDA’s “indecent transmission” and “patently offensive display” provisions abridge “the freedom of speech” protected by the First Amendment. Pp. ____-____.

Although the CDA’s vagueness is relevant to the First Amendment overbreadth inquiry, the judgment should be affirmed without reaching the Fifth Amendment issue. P. 2341.

The special factors recognized in some of the Court’s cases as justifying regulation of the broadcast media-the history of extensive government regulation of broadcasting, see, e.g., Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC,395 U.S. 367, 399-400, 89 S.Ct. 1794, 1811-1812, 23 L.Ed.2d 371 the scarcity of available frequencies at its inception, see, e.g., Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. FCC,512 U.S. 622, 637-638, 114 S.Ct. 2445, 2456-2457, 129 L.Ed.2d 497 and its “invasive” nature, see Sable Communications of Cal., Inc. v. FCC,492 U.S. 115, 128, 109 S.Ct. 2829, 2837-2838, 106 L.Ed.2d 93-are not present in cyberspace. Thus, these cases provide no basis for qualifying the level of First Amendment scrutiny that should be applied to the Internet. Pp. ____-____.

To continue reading

Twenty Years After Reno V Aclu The Long Arc Of Internet History Returns

Twenty years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously decided Reno v.American Civil Liberties Union, which found the communications decency provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to be unconstitutional. Applying strict scrutiny under the First Amendment, the Supreme Court concluded that unlike broadcasting where the FCCs indecency regulation has been upheld due to the unique characteristics of that medium no content regulation with a justification of online child protection would be allowed. This means that there continues to be no content restrictions on what American internet users can send or receive.

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Reno V Aclu Key Takeaways

• The Reno v. ACLU case presented the Supreme Court with its first opportunity to determine how freedom of speech would apply to the internet.
• The case centered on the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which criminalized the exchange of “indecent” information between adults and minors.
• The court ruled that the CDA’s content-based restriction of online speech violated of the First Amendment freedom of speech.
• The case set a precedent for judging online communications by the same standards that books and other written materials receive under the First Amendment.

E District Court’s Findings Of Fact

After five days of testimony, the District Court rendered sixty-seven separate findings of fact concerning the Internet, the Web, and COPA’s impact on speech activity in this relatively-new medium. See Reno III, 31 F. Supp.2d at 482-92. It bears noting that none of the parties dispute the District Court’s findings , nor are any challenged as clearly erroneous. Thus, we accept these findings.

The District Court first rendered findings concerning the physical medium known as the Internet, which it recognized consisted of many different methods of communication, only one of which is the World Wide Web. See Reno III, 31 F. Supp.2d at 482-83. It found that “nce a provider posts its content on the Internet and chooses to make it available to all, it generally cannot prevent that content from entering any geographical community.” Id.

The Court then made findings as to the costs and burdens COPA imposes on Web publishers and on the adults who seek access to sites covered by COPA. See Reno III, 31 F. Supp.2d at 482-492. As observed earlier, the statute provides for a limited number of defenses for Web publishers. See 47 U.S.C. § 231. The Court found that as a technological matter the only affirmative defenses presently available are the implementation of credit card or age verification systems because there is no currently functional digital certificate or other reasonable means to verify age. See Reno III. 31 F. Supp.2d at 487.

The statute provides:

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Us Supreme Court Proceedings

The Supreme Court declared unconstitutional two provisions of the Communications Decency Act that prohibited indecent communications to minors on the Internet. The Court found that the CDA is a content-based blanket restriction on speech . . . . As such, it may be found constitutional only if it serves to promote a compelling interest and is the least restrictive means to further the articulated interest.

As for whether the CDA promotes a compelling interest, although the Court referred to the legitimacy and importance of the congressional goal of protecting children from harmful materials, it suggested that there may be less of a governmental interest in protecting older children from indecent material at least such material as had artistic or educational value.

Considering whether the CDA is the least restrictive means to further the governmental interest, the Court found that the Government to explain why a less restrictive provision would not be as effective as the CDA. The Court held that:

The Court held that despite the intent to protect minors from inappropriate materials, the statute abridged the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment.

Communications Decency Act Tried To Protect Minors From Offensive Internet Communications

The CDA was designed to protect minors from indecent and patently offensive communications on the Internet by prohibiting the knowing transmission of obscene or indecent messages.

The act allowed Web sites to defend themselves by either good faith efforts to restrict prohibited communications to adults or age verification measures such as credit cards or identification numbers.

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Fast Facts: Reno V Aclu

• Case Argued: March 19, 1997
• June 26, 1997
• Petitioner: Attorney General Janet Reno
• Respondent: American Civil Liberties Union
• Key Question: Did the 1996 Communications Decency Act violate the First and Fifth Amendments by being overly broad and vague in its definitions of the types of internet communications that it banned?
• Majority Decision: Justices Stevens, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer, O’Connor, Rehnquist
• Dissenting: None
• Ruling: The Supreme Court ruled that the act violated the First Amendment by enforcing overly broad restrictions on free speech and that it is unconstitutional for the government to broadly restrict the content of online speech.

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Supreme Court Of The United States

Syllabus

RENO, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, et al. v. AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION et al.

appeal from the united states district court for the eastern district of pennsylvania

No. 96-511. Argued March 19, 1997-Decided June 26, 1997

Held: The CDA’s “indecent transmission” and “patently offensive display” provisions abridge “the freedom of speech” protected by the First Amendment. Pp. 17-40.

Although the CDA’s vagueness is relevant to the First Amendment overbreadth inquiry, the judgment should be affirmed without reaching the Fifth Amendment issue. P. 17.

The special factors recognized in some of the Court’s cases as justifying regulation of the broadcast media-the history of extensive government regulation of broadcasting, see, e.g., Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC, 395 U. S. 367, 399-400 the scarcity of available frequencies at its inception, see, e.g., Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. FCC, 512 U. S. 622, 637-638 and its “invasive” nature, see Sable Communications of Cal., Inc. v. FCC, 492 U. S. 115, 128-are not present in cyberspace. Thus, these cases provide no basis for qualifying the level of First Amendment scrutiny that should be applied to the Internet. Pp. 22-24.

929 F. Supp. 824, affirmed.

Stevens, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas, Ginsburg, and Breyer, JJ., joined. O’Connor, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part, in which Rehnquist, C. J., joined.

Reno V American Civil Liberties Union

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. gestures during an address against the recently enacted Communications Decency Act in 1996 in Washington, D.C. The legislation was part of the broad telecommunications deregulation bill signed by President Clinton, establishing government control of the Internet. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down provisions of the CDA in 1997 in Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, distinguishing the Internet from radio, which the government regulates.

In Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 U.S.844 , the Supreme Court held in a unanimous decision that provisions of the 1996 Communications Decency Act were an unconstitutional, content-based restriction of First Amendment free speech rights.

The decision is significant because the Court established that speech on the Internet is entitled to the same high degree of First Amendment protection extended to the print media as opposed to the reduced level given the broadcast media.

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Reno V American Civil Liberties Union Case Brief

Statement of the Facts:

The Communications Decency Act of 1996 was meant to protect minors from harmful content on the Internet. Two provisions in particular were challenged by the ACLU.

The ACLU and other plaintiffs argued that those provisions of the CDA were overbroad in violation of the First Amendment, and too vague in violation of the Fifth Amendment. The Government, in turn, relied on the Supreme Courts other obscenity decisions Ginsberg v. New York, FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, and Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc. as support for the constitutionality of the CDA.

Ginsberg upheld the constitutionality of a statute that prohibited selling material to minors that was obscene as to minors, but not obscene as to adults Pacifica upheld the constitutionality of sanctions on a radio station that aired explicit content at a time when children could hear it Renton upheld the constitutionality of zoning ordinances that kept adult movie theaters out of residential areas.

Procedural History:

Issue and Holding:

Does a law that limits protected as well as unprotected speech violate the First Amendment? Yes.

Judgment:

The Eastern District Court of Pennsylvania decision is affirmed.

Reasoning:

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About: Reno V American Civil Liberties Union

Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 U.S. 844 , was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously ruling that anti-indecency provisions of the 1996 Communications Decency Act violated the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech. Two Justices concurred in part and dissented in part to the decision. This was the first major Supreme Court ruling on the regulation of materials distributed via the Internet.

C Overview Of The Internet And The World Wide Web

In recent years use of the Internet and the Web has become increasingly common in mainstream society. Nevertheless, because the unique character of these new electronic media significantly affect our opinion today, we briefly review their relevant elements.

For more thorough descriptions of the Internet and the Web see e.g., Reno I, 929 F. Supp. 824, 830-45 Reno II, 521 U.S. 844 American Libraries Ass’n v. Pataki, 969 F. Supp. 160, 164-67 Hearst Corp. v. Goldberger, 1999 WL 97097 *1 .

The Internet is a decentralized, self-maintained networking system that links computers and computer networks around the world, and is capable of quickly transmitting communications. See American Libraries Ass’n v. Pataki, 969 F. Supp. 160, 164 ACLU v. Reno, 31 F. Supp.2d 473, 481 . Even though the Internet appears to be a “single, integrated system” from a user’s perspective, in fact no single organization or entity controls the Internet. ACLU v. Reno, 929 F. Supp. 824, 838 Reno III, 31 F. Supp.2d at 484. As a result, there is no “centralized point from which individual Web sites or services can be blocked from the Web.” Id. Although estimates are difficult because of the Internet’s rapid growth, it was recently estimated that the Internet connects over 159 countries and more than 109 million users. See ACLU v. Johnson, 194 F.3d 1149, 1153 .

People v. Barrows, 177 Misc.2d 712, 729

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