THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 22, 1996 TAG: 9602220356
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: CHICAGO TRIBUNE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
The U.S. Supreme Court gave a chilly reception Wednesday to a 1992 federal law designed to restrict the public's access to sexually explicit programming on certain cable television channels.
During courtroom arguments, the Justice Department tried to overcome free speech concerns by asserting that federal regulations simply gave cable operators the option not to carry indecent programs.
In effect, the cable operators - and not the government - do the actual censoring, said Lawrence Wallace, the deputy solicitor general. The First Amendment forbids only government restrictions on free speech, he said.
But Justice Sandra Day O'Connor asked if the ``government thumb'' wasn't being put on the scale ``to eliminate certain kinds of protected speech.'' And Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted that by placing the job of banning offensive programming on cable operators, subscribers who request such programming are ``stigmatized.''
The law, which has not taken effect given the legal challenge, provides that indecent programming on leased access and certain public and governmental channels that is not automatically banned must be segregated or blocked to protect minors. It doesn't pertain to commercial channels, such as HBO.
By limiting view choice, Justice David Souter suggested, the law runs the risk of becoming a content-based restriction on speech, something the court has outlawed.
The law was challenged in a test case by the Denver Area Educational Telecommunications Consortium, the American Civil Liberties Union and several other groups.
The court is expected to rule before it ends public sessions in June.
The outcome of the case is almost certain to affect enforcement of the recently enacted telecommunications law. That statute allows on-line computer services to restrict access to or availability of material the provider or user considers obscene, excessively violent, harassing or otherwise objectionable.
KEYWORDS: U.S. SUPREME COURT CABLE TELEVISION PONOGRAPHY by CNB