American Libraries Association v. Pataki

The court's decision in American Libraries Association is extremely important. If followed by other federal courts, the decision means that only Congress, and not the states, will be able to regulate the flow of information over the Internet. This impact is particularly important given the Supreme Court's subsequent holding in the 1997 case of Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union. In American Libraries Association, Judge Preska did not reach the plaintiffs' argument that the New York statute violated the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, because the law was unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause. In Reno, the Court invalidated a federal law regulating indecent material over the Internet which was similar to the New York law on the ground that it violated the right to free speech. Thus taken together, American Libraries Association and Reno provide broad protections for Internet users. Under these decisions, only the U.S. Congress, and not the states, may regulate the Internet, and Congress must do so in a way which does not violate the First Amendment.