huridocs-tech Court Limits Online Speech

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## author     : clore@columbia-center.org
## date       : 12.02.99
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>From Wired News (www.wired.com):

Court Limits Online Speech
by Heidi Kriz

                     The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
                     became the first federal jurisdiction
                     to uphold restrictions on online speech
                     when it upheld a 1996 Virginia law
                     barring state employees from engaging
                     in "sexually explicit communication" on
                     the Internet.

                     The American Civil Liberties Union had
                     challenged the original law on behalf
                     of six university professors, saying
                     that it amounted to an attack on
                     academic freedom. The ACLU is weighing
                     an appeal of the ruling, which came
                     Wednesday.

                     "By the court s logic, a state
                     university English professor has a
                     free-speech right to make water-cooler
                     comments about the more salacious
                     elements of the Clinton-Lewinsky
                     scandal, but a political science
                     professor could be fired for discussing
                     the same issue in her classroom," said
                     Ann Beeson, a staff attorney for the
                     ACLU, in a statement.

                     Although some state officials will say
                     the decision is about "preventing state
                     employees from downloading
                     pornography," Paul Smith, one of the
                     George Mason University professors
                     challenging the law, said it poses a
                     serious threat to academic freedom.

                     Smith, who teaches a course on popular
                     culture that involves the examination
                     of pornography, was censured by his own
                     university after the law was passed in
                     1996. School officials pulled the plug
                     on his classroom Web site, which
                     contained academic articles on culture
                     and pornography.

                     In its decision, the three-judge panel
                     acknowledged that the First Amendment
                     applies when public employees are
                     speaking on matters "of public
                     concern." But it went on to say that no
                     "job-related speech" involves matters
                     of public concern. Therefore,
                     job-related speech is not protected by
                     the First Amendment.

                     According to Beeson, the court decision
                     expanded the rationale behind the
                     original law, which was aimed at online
                     speech restrictions, and "broaden[ed]
                     its application to be a potential gag
                     on all sorts of state employees,
                     including librarians, professors, and
                     social workers."

                     The ACLU is considering whether to
                     appeal the decision, either before the
                     full Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals or
                     to the Supreme Court.




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