cwnewz.com - A federal law which was intended to restrict children's access to pornography on the internet quietly died Wednesday at the Supreme Court, more than 10 years after Congress overwhelmingly approved it.
The Child Online Protection Act would have barred Web sites from making harmful content available to minors over the Internet. The law had been embroiled in challenges to its constitutionality since it passed in 1998 and never took effect.
On Wednesday a Massachusetts schoolgirl and her parents tried to sue a local school district under both a 1972 law against sex discrimination in education and a post-Civil War civil rights law. The court ruled unanimously in their favor.
Federal courts had said that the newer law, Title IX, barring sex discrimination at schools receiving federal money, was the only avenue open to the parents.
The high court disagreed, although several justices commented when they heard arguments in December that the family probably would lose their lawsuit, even if they won the right to pursue it.
Their daughter was a 5-year-old kindergarten student when she told them said she was subjected to repeated harassment by a third-grade boy on their school bus. Now, what is this world coming to?
The Internet blocking law did not make it as far as a high court hearing. The justices rejected the government's final attempt to revive the law, turning away the appeal without comment.
The American Civil Liberties Union led the challenge to the law on behalf of writers, artists and health educators. "For over a decade the government has been trying to thwart freedom of speech on the Internet, and for years the courts have been finding the attempts unconstitutional," said Chris Hansen, the ACLU's lead attorney on the case. "It is not the role of the government to decide what people can see and do on the Internet. Those are personal decisions that should be made by individuals and their families."
A federal appeals court in Philadelphia earlier ruled that the law would violate the First Amendment, saying filtering technologies and other parental control tools are a less restrictive way to protect children from inappropriate content online.
The act was passed the year after the Supreme Court ruled that another law intended to protect children from explicit material online was unconstitutional.
The Bush administration had fought hard to have the law take effect.
In 2006, the Justice Department subpoenaed internal files from dozens of Internet service providers and other technology firms, including AT&T Inc., Comcast Corp., Cox Communications Inc., EarthLink Inc., Symantec Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. as part of its defense of the law.
But senior U.S. District Judge Lowell Reed Jr. ruled in 2007 that software filters work much better than the law would. Reed also said the law failed to address threats that have emerged since it was written ? including online predators on social-networking sites ? because it targets only commercial Web publishers.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia upheld Reed's ruling.
Critics also said that pornographers and others could simply base their operations offshore, beyond the reach of U.S. authorities.
In 2004 the Supreme Court upheld an order blocking its enforcement on the grounds that the law probably was unconstitutional. The five justices who made the ruling are still on the court.
It was still unusual for the court to kill a major federal law that had an administration's backing, without a hearing.
I think it's time that we as Christians should take a stand for whats right and let it be known that we will not let this go on.
Christian Web News - Galatians 3:13-14. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree''), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Christian Web News - Often when we talk about sin, we use lots of examples such as abortion, homosexuality, murder, substance abuse - I could go on and on. However, I want to direct this little three letter word to the Christian who is serving God and can tell a sinner all about his or her sin. We use to call it “pointing the finger” at someone who does so many bad things.
