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Constitutional Law Keyed to Choper
Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union
Citation:
521 U.S. 844 (1997)Facts
In 1996, Congress enacted the Communications Decency Act (CDA) as part of the Telecommunications Act. Two provisions were challenged: Section 223(a)(1)(B), which prohibited the knowing transmission of “obscene or indecent” communications to any recipient under 18 years, and Section 223(d), which prohibited the knowing sending or displaying of “patently offensive” messages in a manner available to persons under 18. The CDA provided affirmative defenses for those who took “good faith, reasonable, effective, and appropriate actions” to restrict minors’ access or who required certain forms of age verification. The District Court made extensive findings about the nature of the internet, noting its unique characteristics as a medium of worldwide communication with low barriers to entry and the technical difficulties of age verification. The court found that existing technology did not enable content providers to effectively restrict minors’ access without also denying adults access to constitutionally protected speech.
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