High Court Bars Internet-Porn Statute From Taking Effect

By Caroline Hendrie

A federal law aimed at protecting children from Internet pornography will remain on hold, following a 5-4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court finding it likely that the statute’s goals can be achieved by means that carry less potential threat to Americans’ rights to free speech.

The 6-year-old legal tussle over the Child Online Protection Act—the subject of an earlier decision by the high court in 2002—now moves back to a federal district court for a trial on whether the law violates those First Amendment rights.

Enacted by Congress in 1998 after the high court struck down an earlier law that had a similar intent, the statute would impose criminal penalties on commercial Web publishers who failed to restrict access by minors to sexually explicit material through use of age-verification technology. It was challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of various...