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.

Separate Opinion

Justice O'Connor, joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist, agreed with the decision "as of 1997", but expressed interest in the idea of creating an "adult zone" on the Internet that was made inaccessible to minors through "gateway technology" that had been investigated by a lower district court. If such technology could be introduced, they wrote, zoning portions of the Internet to prohibit adult content could be as constitutional as such zoning is in the physical world. (See .xxx top-level domain. An alternate proposal promoted by free speech advocates claims that a ".kids" domain would be more feasible and constitutional.)

Related Topics:
Justice O'Connor - Chief Justice Rehnquist - .xxx top-level domain - Free speech - .kids

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The two dissented in part, writing they would have invalidated a narrower portion of the two CDA provisions under review.

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