Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union

Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, (521 U.S. 844) is a 1997 United States Supreme Court case, in which the Court voted 9-0 to strike down two anti-obscenity provisions of the Communications Decency Act (the "CDA"), finding they violated the free speech provisions of the First Amendment. This was the first major Supreme Court ruling regarding the regulation of materials distributed via the Internet.

Related Topics:
1997 - United States Supreme Court - Obscenity - Communications Decency Act - First Amendment - Internet

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The CDA was an attempt to protect minors from explicit material on the Internet by criminalizing the "knowing" transmission of "obscene or indecent" messages to any recipient under 18; and also the knowing sending to a person under 18 of anything "that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards, sexual or excretory activities or organs."

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