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

[Mac Norton <mnorton@cavern.uark.edu>]

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