Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 14:58:20 -0800 From: Joe Shea To: Multiple recipients of list SPJ-L Subject: AR Not Covered By TRO Those of you who have followed our CDA suit may be interested in this latest development. + by American Reporter Staff Hollywood, Calif. 2/16/96 decision free TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER DOES NOT COVER THIS NEWSPAPER American Reporter Staff LOS ANGELES -- A Federal judge has thrown a constitutional safety net over the Communications Decency Act, but it missed The American Reporter. A statement issued yesterday by the paper was incorrect in that respect. "We will continue to fight for vindication in the courts, and we expect to find it following our hearing in the New York matter," AR editor Joe Shea said Friday afternoon. According to American Reporter attorney Randall Boe, this paper is not covered by the temporary restraining order issued yesterday by Philadelphia U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Buckwalter. "The judge refused to enjoin (or restrain) enforcement of the provision that would presumably apply to [the American Reporter]. The judge found that the use of "indecent" in one section of the CDA was vague, but that the definition in section 502(d)(2) -- was not vague. "This is why the ACLU should never have asked for a TRO -- they have succeeded only in muddying the issues and creating a little bad law for everyone else," Boe said. The American Reporter's complaint against the CDA, filed in federal court in New York on Feb. 8, minutes after President Clinton signed the telecom reform bill into law, will be heard by a separate three-judge panel in New York. The digital daily published an article on the CDA by Texas Judge Steve Russell on Feb. 8, both in its email and WWW editions, that contained graphic language previously defined as indecent. The article contained the first so-called "four-letter words" ever published by the paper, which began on the SPJ-L list on April 10, 1995. In the latest action in Shea v. Reno, a brief prepared by Boe was filed today in New York, and Federal Judge Denise Cote has given the government 30 days to answer it. The American Reporter is represented by Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin and Kahn, the Washington-based law firm that also defended George Carlin in the famous "seven dirty words" case. -30- * * * Best, Joe Shea Editor-in-Chief The American Reporter joeshea@netcom.com http://www.newshare.com/Reporter/today.html