The Constitution and Freedom of Speech on the Internet
The Constitution defines the fundamental law of the United States federal government, setting forth the three principal branches of the federal government, outlining their jurisdictions, and propounding the basic rights of U.S. citizens. It has become the landmark legal document of the Western world, and is the oldest written national constitution currently in effect (Mount at http://www.usconstitution.net/). Twenty-seven amendments have been added to the Constitution since 1789. The first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were adopted as a unit in 1791. Although the federal government is required by the provisions of the Constitution to respect the individual citizen's basic rights, such as right of trial by jury, the most significant guarantees for individual civil rights were provided by ratification of the Bill of Rights (Mount at http://www.usconstitution.net). The First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, speech, and the press
Finally, this ruling has several limitations on free speech on the Internet. For example, the extended full First Amendment protection the Court has awarded to the Internet is likely to have severe ramifications. First, as attested to by the failure of the CDA, it will be more difficult to enact Internet content regulations, and it is not unreasonable to say that government regulations will probably fail in this area. The future of lawsuits in this area will most likely be determined by the same standard, enabling almost anything to qualify as protected free speech under the First Amendment. In the 1997 case, ACLU v. Reno, the Supreme Court set the precedent for the regulation of the Internet. The Communications Decency Act (CDA) became law on February 8, 1996, and the ACLU and nineteen other plaintiffs filed suit against the Attorney General. The lawsuit challenged the constitutionality of prohibition of the creation, solicitation, and initiation
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Supreme Court, Act CDA, , Rights Mount, Amendment Congress, Bill Rights, Fourteenth Amendment, supreme court, federal government, ACLU Reno, bill rights, aclu reno, basic rights, speech press, free speech, eighteen age,
Approximate Word count = 646
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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