The Child Online Protection Act finally died yesterday. The bill, signed late in 1998 by Bill Clinton, made it illegal to put sexually explicit materials on a website seeking commercial gain, but never went into effect. The bill made it to the Supreme Court in 2004 but was remanded to the US appellate court at Philadelphia. As Mukasey vs ACLU it was dismissed Wednesday without comment.

Although we are certain that participating in creating pornography is likely to be damaging to children, we are skeptical that seeing it has any effect at all. Even if it did, any damage that could be done by exposure to pornography is insignificant compared to the damage of raising children in an environment where censorship is practiced.

If I Were King, the government would not have pressed this case.