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Near Impossible To Enforce At Best, Unconstitutional At Worst: The Consequences Of Maryland’S Text Messaging Ban On Drivers, Alan Lazerow Jan 2010

Near Impossible To Enforce At Best, Unconstitutional At Worst: The Consequences Of Maryland’S Text Messaging Ban On Drivers, Alan Lazerow

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

A local newspaper reports that your state recently passed a law prohibiting citizens from “writ[ing] or send[ing] a text message while operating a motor vehicle.” Armed with the knowledge of the texting ban, you, being a reasonable citizen, are likely to proceed in one of at least three ways, each of which exposes the statute’s fundamental flaws.


The Communications Decency Act: Aborting The First Amendment?, Sheryl L. Herndon L. Herndon Jan 1997

The Communications Decency Act: Aborting The First Amendment?, Sheryl L. Herndon L. Herndon

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

On February 8, 1996, President Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 into law and explained that the legislation would "stimulate investment, promote competition, [and] provide open access for all citizens to the Information Superhighway." However, contrary to the goal of "opening wide the door to the Information Age," provisions of the Act violate the Constitution's First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech by imposing far-reaching new federal criminal liabilities on Americans who exercise their free speech rights on the Internet. In particular, a little-noticed provision of the Act, which expands an 1873 law banning abortion-related speech by criminalizing Internet …