That Pesky 1st Amendment

Good news for a change: I just read in the NYT that “A federal judge in Philadelphia yesterday struck down a 1998 law that made it a crime for Web sites to allow children to gain access to material deemed “harmful.”” (BTW, this is the free part of the NYT, no reg required.) “Senior Judge Lowell A. Reed Jr. of Federal District Court ruled that the law was ineffective, overly broad and at odds with free speech rights. Judge Reed added that there were far less restrictive methods like software filters that parents could use to control their children’s Internet use.” In explaining his rationale for what critics will call a pro-porn decision (NTTAWWT), the judge said “perhaps we do the minors of this country harm if First Amendment protections, which they will with age inherit fully, are chipped away in the name of their protection.” Well said!