Court hears Internet free speech debate

For the first time ever, the Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday concerning free speech on the Internet.

The court was asked to uphold a law making it a federal crime to put indecent material on the Internet where minors can access it.

Seth P. Waxman, an attorney for the government, and Bruce J. Ennis, an attorney for groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Library Association, each had about 35 minutes to present their arguments.

The case reached the Supreme Court because a federal court in Philadelphia blocked the law from taking effect last year, saying it would unlawfully limit adults' rights to certain material.

"The government cannot reduce the adult population to reading or viewing only what is appropriate for children," Ennis said in presenting his argument.

The law, called the Communications Decency Act, is part of the Telecommunications Act, which was passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton in 1996.

The law came in response to the vast amount of material that could be called indecent available on the World Wide Web.

"The Internet threatens to give every child a free pass into the equivalent of every adult bookstore and ever adult video store in the country," Waxman said in his argument.

Shortly after the law was passed, a number of homepages nationwide including some University students' were turned black with a blue ribbon in a protest by the owners. The blue ribbon is a symbol of groups fighting the law.

The act makes it illegal to publish or carry material on the Internet that could be viewed as "indecent" by segments of the public. Anyone who transmits, posts or distributes such questionable material may be punished with a $250,000 fine and up to two years in prison.

Because he is writing a book about the First Amendment with a chapter dealing with freedom of speech in cyberspace, Robert Richards, associate professor of journalism and law at Penn State, attended the oral arguments for the ground-breaking case, Reno v. ACLU.

Lawyers on both sides faced tough questions from the justices, he said.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wondered whether the government could prohibit indecent conversations on a public street with minors present.

Justice Stephen Breyer asked whether the Internet law would make it a crime for high school students to have an on-line conversation about their sexual experiences. Breyer added that the students could talk about the same topic over the telephone and face no penalties.

But Justice Antonin Scalia said in any context it is lawful for government to require pornographic material to be kept away from children.

"The government realized that its case is weak on a number of First Amendment points," Richards, director of the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment, said.

The government asked the court yesterday to use its power to remove the provisions of the act that make it unconstitutional, Richards said.

"That was kind of interesting," he said. "That's kind of a last gasp on the government's part. They are asking the court to do the job of the legislature."

Like the federal judges who blocked the law from taking effect, Richards said he agrees that the law does not prevent minors from viewing indecent material and goes too far.

"It's overbroad because it sweeps into its reach not only the material it's trying to keep away from minors, but also material that would be available in museums and libraries and medical publications," Richards said. "Constitutionally speaking, statutes cannot be overbroad."

Another problem with the statue is that minors could still view indecent materials on Web sites outside of the United States, he said.

On Web sites within the country, the government wants the sites to have age-screening software. One problem with the software is that it could be too expensive for individuals and nonprofit organizations. A second problem is that the software cannot be used with E-mail or in chat rooms.

The justices will now confer about the case in private. A decision is expected in June or July.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.