Supreme Court to Consider Porn Law Protecting Children
by Rusty Pugh and Jody Brown
(AgapePress) – The U.S. Supreme Court will review the government's latest effort to protect children from online pornography. At least one Christian attorney believes that is a positive development.
Lower courts have blocked the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), which makes it a crime to knowingly place objectionable material where a child can find it on the Internet. The law has not been enforced because it has been tied up in court after being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union in late 1998.
American Family Association Director of Governmental Affairs, Pat Trueman, says the ACLU believes all pornography — even child porn — should be legal. The ACLU's challenge has survived all the way to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. But Trueman says the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case is encouraging.
“That's a positive development,” Trueman says. “It means that there's at least four members of the Supreme Court [who] are troubled by the lower court decision.”
According to Trueman, people should be troubled by that decision. “What the court essentially said is that pornographers have a right to give your children illegal pornography — something they don't even have a right to give adults,” he says.
Trueman says until the court issues a ruling in the case, COPA cannot be enforced. The ACLU's fellow plaintiffs in the case include the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Internet Content Coalition, the Philadelphia Gay News, Salon magazine, and PlanetOut Corporation.
(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)
by Fred Jackson and Jim Brown
(AgapePress) – A pro-family analyst says recent stories dealing with the religious beliefs of some high-profile politicians are just the latest examples of the media’s bias against Christianity.
A few weeks ago, The Washington Post ran an extensive story about Attorney General John Ashcroft’s morning Bible studies at the Justice Department. The Post quoted unnamed opponents to the strictly voluntary sessions who called the meetings offensive, speculating that Ashcroft might favor those who attend.
Focus on the Family notes a similar article in The Post also detailed Congressman Tom DeLay’s church ties and a Bible class he teaches. The author questioned whether DeLay’s beliefs might make many uncomfortable.
First Amendment attorney Jordan Lawrence finds it ironic that when former Attorney General Janet Reno had staff members read through Shakespearean plays, nobody from the left-leaning paper questioned whether Reno favored those who liked Shakespeare and would attend those readings of the plays.
Miriam Moore of the Family Research Council says it is strange to see the media make prayer meetings front-page news. She says if they continue with articles like this, people will get the impression that the media are far removed from mainstream America and what the average American would consider threatening.
