Re: Courts strike down New York and Georgia Net-censorship laws

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

Pardon me as I muddle through this --

Defamation law looks to local communities to define
things like reputation. What about huge Internet
communities? What about the distinction between public
and private figures?

Wouldn't an even-handed application of the commerce
clause stop states from banning child porn or passing
libel/defamation laws for the Net?

Though I agree that no court would strike down a child
porn law on commerce clause grounds...

Dan Burk has written much about this topic, and I'm
planning to read up on it over the weekend. One of his
law review articles came up during oral arguments before
Judge Preska in NYC.

-Declan


On Fri, 20 Jun 1997, Mac Norton wrote:

> On Fri, 20 Jun 1997, Steve Schear wrote:
> 
> > >But the rulings differ in important ways. Manhattan's
> > >Judge Preska did not answer whether the New York law
> > >violated the First Amendment, saying she was going to
> > >wait for the U.S. Supreme Court's to rule on the
> > >Communications Decency Act. She said, however, that
> > >she didn't *need to answer* that question to strike
> > >down the law since it violated the U.S. Constitution's
> > >ban on states attempts to regulate commerce outside
> > >their borders.
> > 
> > Might this also mean that states attempting to restrict Internet gaming
> > might similarly be restrained?
> 
> Not necessarily, and that's ilustrative of one of the problems with this
> decision on Commerce Clause grounds.  Is child porn, like other articles
> of "commerce", generic across state lines, or is it subject to a Miller
> "community standard"?  Same for the "harmful to minors" standard?
> MacN
>   
> 
> 
>