Date: Wed, 15 May 1996 17:04:04 -0700
From: telstar@wired.com (--Todd Lappin-->)
Subject: FLASH: DoJ Ordered to Halt "Reviews" (Encore)


The aftershocks from the American Family Association's campaign to unleash
the Department of Justice on CompuServe Inc. continue to reverberate from
the Philadelphia courtroom...

In a poignant rebuke, Judge Stuart Dalzell today ordered the government to
halt all "reviews" of online indecency complaints pending a decision
regarding the constitutionality of the Communications Decency Act.

Dalzell writes that the government's "conduct in subjecting a content
provider to private and public scrutiny for displaying material that is
neither obscene nor child pornography clearly runs afoul of both this
Court's orders and the government's promises."

Scathing!

=46urther detail follows below.

Work the network!

--Todd Lappin-->
Section Editor
WIRED Magazine

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CITIZENS INTERNET EMPOWERMENT COALITION
1634 EYE STREET, N.W.
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20006
202/637-9800


=46OR IMMEDIATE RELEASE           For Further Information, Contact:
May 15, 1996                                    Sydney Rubin, 202/828-8829


COURT ORDERS FEDS TO CEASE "REVIEWING" INTERNET COMPLAINTS PENDING DECISION
ON COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A federal judge in Philadelphia today ordered the Justic=
e
Department to stop all "reviews" of complaints under the Communications
Decency Act until a three-judge panel rules on the constitutionality of the
law that attempts to censor the Internet.

"As we said in court Friday, the government's action seriously injured
CompuServe and sent a real chill through the industry,"  said Bruce J. Ennis=
,
lead attorney for the American Library Association and 26 other plaintiffs i=
n
a landmark case that will decide the future of free speech in cyberspace. "W=
e
are pleased that the court has not only granted us the  relief we requested,
but has acted so quickly."

A three-judge federal panel began hearing the case in early February.  Prior
to the first hearing, the court entered a partial temporary restraining orde=
r
enjoining the government from enforcing certain sections of the law.  The
government then stipulated to the court that it would not investigate or
prosecute any violations of the law until a decision was reached in the case=