The US Supreme Court could decide the fate of the Communications Decency Act as early as this Friday, when it plans to discuss two cases regarding the act's constitutionality - Reno v. ACLU, and Reno v. Shea.
In an unexpected move last Wednesday, the high court discussed Reno v. ACLU in sessions, but didn't decide whether to hear the case or to uphold a decision by a Philadelphia federal district court granting the ACLU and other plaintiffs in the case a temporary injunction against the CDA. The CDA, passed as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, penalizes anyone for creating or soliciting indecent or obscene material on the Net.
The court may have decided to put the ACLU case on hold until Friday so it could consider both cases together, sources say. Joe Shea, an online newspaper editor and plaintiff in the lesser-known of the two cases, last week asked the court to combine his case with the ACLU's. Like the ACLU, Shea won a temporary injunction against the CDA last July in a Manhattan federal district court.
Shea argues that the ACLU doesn't adequately address the issue of free press, and that "if the Supreme Court doesn't consider Shea's case with the ACLU's, the online press may never enjoy the same rights as sister publications in print," Shea said in an email news release.
But plaintiffs in the ACLU case contend that issues of free press are being addressed in their suit, especially since Web site publishers, such as HotWired, are named as co-plaintiffs. Shea declined an invitation last winter to join in the ACLU suit before it was filed.
