Ohio AG Welcomes Court Ruling on Online Protection Law

The following is from Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, and was released on April 15, 2010:

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray today won an important case concerning a law that would protect children from receiving obscene material online. The decision came from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati in American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression v. Cordray.

“I’m pleased that the Sixth Circuit has agreed with our position that this law is in fact constitutional,” said Attorney General Cordray. “This will allow that law to finally be enforced, providing an important tool for local law enforcement and prosecutors as they combat sexual predators’ use of the Internet and other electronic communications to prey on our young people.”

At issue in the case was an Ohio law prohibiting adults from sending material defined as “harmful to juveniles” — such as pornography — directly to minors by electronic means. A group of online publishers challenged the law, arguing that it violated their free speech rights under the First Amendment. The Attorney General argued that the law is constitutional because it does not sweep as broadly as the online publishers claimed.

In January, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the Attorney General’s reading of what the statute covered was correct. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court agreed that the statute covers only “electronic communications that can be personally directed” — such as e-mail, text messages and instant messages — and that “a person who posts matter harmful to juveniles on generally accessible websites and in public chat rooms does not violate” the statute.

Today’s ruling from the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit resolves the remaining questions as to whether the law is constitutional, concluding that it is. In its ruling, the Sixth Circuit directs the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio at Dayton to vacate its injunction that had prohibited prosecuting attorneys from enforcing the statute in question, R.C. 2907.31. Attorney General Cordray was defending the statute on behalf of the state as well as Ohio’s county prosecutors.