High Court Affirms Indecent-Speech Ruling

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld part of a law that the operator of an unusual Web site said criminalizes any indecent computer communication intended to annoy another person.

The action was a defeat for ApolloMedia Corp., a private San Francisco company that operates the annoy.com Web site. The high court sided with the Justice Department in summarily affirming a ruling that upheld the provision at issue.

The company had argued that a section of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 should be declared unconstitutional on its face for violating the 1st Amendment because it punishes indecent speech.

At issue was part of the law that allows for up to two years in prison for anyone who transmits a comment or image “which is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy or indecent, with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person.”

The company appealed to the Supreme Court after a special three-judge federal court in California last year upheld the Justice Department’s interpretation of the law that the word “indecent” was limited to obscene material.

“At stake on this appeal is the right of ApolloMedia and all Internet users not to have to live under the uncertain cloud of a statute that on its face makes an ‘indecent’ communication a felony,” the company said.

The company’s Web site allows visitors to send electronic mail anonymously to various public officials and public figures.

Its online databases contain some material that is sexually explicit or uses vulgar language that some people might consider indecent, ApolloMedia said in its lawsuit.

The Justice Department had urged the Supreme Court to summarily affirm the lower court decision. It said the department has made clear it will not bring a prosecution under the section of the law unless the communication at issue is obscene.