Extremist Speech and the Internet: The Continuing Importance of Brandenburg

By JUDGE LYNN ADELMAN and JON DIETRICH

In Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, the Supreme Court’s first significant attempt to address the application of the First Amendment to the internet, the Court declined to qualify “the level of First Amendment scrutiny that should be applied to this medium.”  The Court explained that “the vast democratic forums of the Internet” have not “been subject to the type of government supervision and regulation that has attended the broadcast industry,” and “the Internet is not as ‘invasive’ as radio or television.”  Comparing regulation of the internet to a previous congressional attempt to regulate “indecent” commercial telephone messages, the Court noted that an internet user generally must take affirmative steps to receive potentially troubling communications.

Click here to read more.