CDA Struck Down

[Dave Banisar <banisar@epic.org>]

                      P R E S S   R E L E A S E


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:               CONTACT:
Thursday, June 26, 1997              David L. Sobel (sobel@epic.org)
10:45 a.m., ET                       202-544-9240


         EPIC HAILS SUPREME COURT INTERNET "INDECENCY" DECISION:

        OPINION "PRESERVES BOTH FREE SPEECH AND PERSONAL PRIVACY"

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) today
hailed the Supreme Court's Internet speech decision as "the first landmark
decision of the 21st Century."  In its first opinion involving cyberspace,
the Court, by a 7-2 vote, struck down the online censorship provisions of
the Communications Decency Act (CDA) (Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice
O'Connor concurred in part and dissented in part).  EPIC participated in
the litigation as both plaintiff and co-counsel.

"Today's opinion defines the First Amendment for the next century,"
according to EPIC Legal Counsel David Sobel, who served as co-counsel in
Reno v. ACLU.  "The Court has written on a clean slate and established the
fundamental principles that will govern free speech issues for the
electronic age."

Sobel said that today's landmark decision "preserves both free speech and
personal privacy in this rapidly growing medium."  Throughout the
litigation of the case, EPIC has stressed that the CDA not only infringed
on Americans' free speech rights, but also posed a grave threat to personal
privacy.  By requiring "speakers" on the Internet to verify the age and
identity of all potential recipients of "indecent" material, the law would
have destroyed the anonymity that is a hallmark of online communications.
EPIC noted that a good deal of sensitive information -- dealing with AIDS
prevention, teenage pregnancy, and other critical social issues -- would
not be sought out if recipients were required to identify themselves.

EPIC joined with the American Civil Liberties Union and 18 other plaintiffs
in challenging the law on February 8, 1996, the day it was signed by
President Clinton.  A three-judge federal court panel in Philadelphia
unanimously ruled on June 11, 1996, that the Internet "indecency"
provisions violated the First Amendment's free speech protections.  That
decision was today affirmed by the  United States Supreme Court.

A copy of the Court's decision is available at:

      http://www2.epic.org/cda/cda_decision.html

EPIC is a non-profit research organization established in 1994 to examine
civil liberties and privacy issues arising in new electronic media.


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