by TChris

Bringing the term to an end with another 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court upheld an injunction that prevents the Justice Dept. from enforcing an overbroad law that's meant to shield minors from internet porn -- a law that, in practice, threatens to keep adults from viewing materials that are legal for an adult to see.

The law, which never took effect, would have authorized fines up to $50,000 for the crime of placing material that is "harmful to minors" within the easy reach of children on the Internet. The law also would have required adults to use access codes and or other ways of registering before they could see objectionable material online.

For now, the law, known as the Child Online Protection Act, would sweep with too broad a brush, Kennedy wrote. "There is a potential for extraordinary harm and a serious chill upon protected speech" if the law took effect, he said.
Kennedy said that filtering software "is not a perfect solution to the problem of children gaining access to harmful-to-minors materials." So far, he added, the government has failed to prove that other technologies would work better.

The Court sent the case back to the district court for a trial, giving the government a chance to prove that filtering software has improved in the five years since the injunction was granted.