NCJ Number
115851
Journal
Journal of Law Reform Volume: 21 Issue: 1 and 2 Dated: (Fall 1987, Winter 1988) Pages: 137-199
Date Published
1988
Length
63 pages
Annotation
This article creates a framework for analyzing the competing interests on each side of the cable/pornography debate, consistent with current Supreme Court teaching on how government, under the first amendment, may constitutionally regulate pornography.
Abstract
After reviewing Supreme Court cases delineating the relationship between the rights of privacy in the home and freedom of speech, the article demonstrates that the technology of cable television provides the solution to the pornography dilemma. Cable television preserves both privacy and speech interests because individual subscribers can be given the physical means to block out programming they find personally offensive without affecting the ability of others to receive that programming. Where such accommodation of interests is permissible, the first amendment prohibits censorship as an overbroad remedy that needlessly infringes on the rights of speakers and willing listeners. The article then analyzes how the cable/pornography debate is affected by the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984. It concludes with a discussion of the special congressional protection for access channels, i.e., channels set aside as a public forum for the use of all members of a community or for mandatory leasing to programmers who are not affiliated with the cable operator. 334 footnotes.