Court refuses to save Web anti-porn law

Washington —- A long legal drive to shield children from sexually explicit material on the Web ended in failure Wednesday when the Supreme Court let a 10-year old anti-pornography law die quietly.

In striking down the law on free-speech grounds, judges said parents can protect their children on their own by installing software filters on their computers.

But fewer than half of parents do so, Bush administration lawyers had argued in an effort to revive the law.

Anti-pornography activists said the court’s action, coming a day after President George W. Bush left office, signaled an end to the government’s bid to restrict pornography on the Web.

“There’s very little reason for hope on this issue,” said Patrick Trueman, a Virginia lawyer who headed the Justice Department’s anti-pornography unit from 1988 to 1993. “I don’t think Congress will try again to protect children from pornography.”

The Supreme Court had struck down an even broader law passed in 1996 that restricted “indecency” on the Internet. Following that ruling in 1997, Congress tried again with a narrow measure that targeted commercial purveyors of pornography on the Web. It was signed into law by President Bill Clinton late in 1998.

The Child Online Protection Act made it a crime to put sexually explicit material on a Web site for commercial gain unless the sponsor used some means to keep out minors. It never went into effect, however.

Judges repeatedly cited free-speech grounds and blocked it from being enforced.

The Supreme Court in 2004 said the law violated the First Amendment because it would crimp the rights of millions of adults. In a 5-4 decision, the justices sent the case back to a lower court in Philadelphia to decide if software filters were effective in screening out sexually explicit material.

Last year, the U.S. appeals court in Philadelphia struck down the law as unconstitutional, saying the software filters were “equally effective” as a means of protecting children from online pornography.

In October, however, Bush administration lawyers disputed that claim and appealed to the Supreme Court.

Countering that contention, the American Civil Liberties Union said the challenged law would crimp free speech on the Web for adults and would not shield children, since at least half of the sexually explicit Web sites are outside the U.S.

The justices issued a brief order Wednesday dismissing the case of Mukasey v. ACLU without comment.

OTHER CASES

Also Wednesday, the Supreme Court:

> Ruled in favor of a Massachusetts schoolgirl and her parents in their effort to sue a local school district for sex harassment under both a 1972 law against sex discrimination in education and a post-Civil War civil rights law.

> Reinstated the murder conviction of the driver in a gang-related, drive-by shooting at a Seattle high school in 1994.

> Held that police officers in Utah who searched a suspect’s home without a warrant cannot be sued for violating his constitutional rights, in a ruling that also abandoned a rigid, two-step test that the court adopted in 2001 to guide judges in assessing alleged violations of constitutional rights.

> Upheld the right of a local public employees’ union, in a Maine case, to force government workers who are not union members to pay share of legal fees.

> Rejected a challenge to an Indian casino in western Michigan, clearing the way for construction about 20 miles south of Grand Rapids.

> Turned down Miami banker Eduardo Masferrer’s bid to substantially reduce his 30-year prison term for his role in a fraud scheme at Hamilton Bank, where he served as chief executive.

—- Associated Press