Fwd: FC: For Judge Reed, nixing CDA II was a difficult decision

X-Sender: declan@mail.well.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.0.2 Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 09:12:22 -0500 To: politech@vorlon.mit.edu From: Declan McCullagh Subject: FC: For Judge Reed, nixing CDA II was a difficult decision Sender: owner-politech@vorlon.mit.edu Reply-To: declan@well.com X-Loop: politech@vorlon.mit.edu X-URL: Politech is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/

http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/16387.html

by Declan McCullagh 3:00 a.m. 20.Nov.98.PST

US District Judge Lowell A. Reed Jr. is a reluctant free speech advocate.

It took him all day Thursday to accept that the CDA II, scheduled to take effect on Friday, would have let federal prosecutors punish any American who operates Web sites with material deemed "harmful to minors."

By the time he finally decided to bar the Justice Department from enforcing the law, he painstakingly outlined how difficult his decision was. "The court has and will give careful analytical deference to" an act of Congress, he said.

Reed's reluctance is easy enough to understand. In language sure to give even the most steely-nerved judge the jitters, the US Supreme Court has called any court's decision to strike down an act of Congress "the gravest and most delicate duty that [it can be] called upon to perform."

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