ABSTRACT
Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 US 844, presented the US Supreme Court with old questions about the reach of the First Amendment to the Constitution in a new context: the Internet. Two provisions of the act and the First Amendment took center stage in the case. The first provision prohibited the knowing transmission of obscene or indecent messages to any recipient under age eighteen. The second prohibited the knowing sending or displaying of patently offensive messages in a way that made them available to a person under age eighteen. In several decisions the Court has recognized that because the government has a strong interest in protecting children, First Amendment rights are more limited when speech is directed to children versus adults. The Court ultimately decided that Internet materials deserve full free speech protection and the bulk of the provisions of the Communications Decency Act were too vague to be enforceable under the First Amendment.
