The Communications Decency Act, long ago declared dead by judges and justices, has gotten its official burial. The US District Court for eastern Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia tribunal upheld by the US Supreme Court in its opinion that the law violated the First Amendment, last week signed a permanent injunction against it.
"Now we know that the government is permanently enjoined from ever prosecuting people under that law," said ACLU spokeswoman Emily Whitfield.
Meanwhile, federal courts in New York and Georgia are expected to rule this week on whether to issue permanent injunctions against state laws they struck down in June. The New York state law, like the CDA, sought to ban indecent material on the Net. The Georgia statute would ban the use of pseudonyms or anonymous speech online.
