Court Strikes Down Overly Broad Massachusetts 'Harmful To Minors' Law

from the free-speech-ftw dept

Thu, Oct 28th 2010 8:34am — Mike Masnick

In another win for free speech rights over an overly aggressive gov't attempt to censor, a federal judge issued an injunction barring a Massacusetts law that tried to ban certain works from the internet for being "harmful to minors." The judge noted that since the law did not require that the works be "purposefully sent to a person the sender knew to be a minor," it went way too far. There have certainly been a lot of attempts by governments to legislate parts of the First Amendment away, and it's nice to see the courts still believe strongly in protecting at least that Amendment.

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Filed Under: free speech, harmful to minors, massachusetts

10 Comments

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:Lobo Santo (profile), 28 Oct 2010 @ 8:50am

Protections
...I've been under the impression lately that courts only bring about "Justice" on accident/by mistake. Surely there is some other force at work which only coincidentally appears to be a judge rendering a judgment which agrees with the First Amendment.
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- Dark Helmet (profile), 28 Oct 2010 @ 8:52am
  
  Re: Protections
  A black hole, maybe?
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  - :Lobo Santo (profile), 28 Oct 2010 @ 9:06am
    
    Re: Re: Protections
    Yes, a black hole of missing cash.
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    - Dark Helmet (profile), 28 Oct 2010 @ 9:11am
      
      Re: Re: Re: Protections
      My bank account is influencing court decisions?
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      - Qritiqal (profile), 28 Oct 2010 @ 12:11pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Protections
        Oh sadness!
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Revelati, 28 Oct 2010 @ 10:21am

I love how they are trying to use "harm to minors" to nullify the 1st amendment, the same way the feds used "interstate commerce" to nullify the 10th.

Talk about child exploitation...

Lets just scrap the constitution all together and replace it with the "Super freedom, terrorists are bad, save the children, patriot, we love Jesus, 9/11, eeeMerica! Git er' donestitution"
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Overcast (profile), 28 Oct 2010 @ 11:30am

Good politicians could get things done without infringing on Constitutional rights.

And I guess that's why we have so many rights being infringed upon.
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- Christopher (profile), 28 Oct 2010 @ 11:32pm
  
  Re:
  Good politicians realize that we don't need to worry about this, and a better way to 'protect children' would be to simply bring pedosexuality out into the open.
  
  The fact is that it is a TOTALLY NORMAL sexuality that is being used as a 'boogie man' in order to frighten families into thinking that their children are in 'danger' every second of every day.
  
  Yes, I know that children are 'snatched' by pedosexuals, but if you look at things, those are usually the pedosexuals who have TRIED to abide by the laws and end up going insane from lack of sexual gratification.
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AW, 28 Oct 2010 @ 12:22pm

As a massachusetts resident..good riddance...now if we can get that "wiretapping" crap overturned.
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- Anonymous Coward, 28 Oct 2010 @ 1:13pm
  
  Re:
  Obama from the White House:
  "What? To get it overused! yah it will be, don't worry"
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