Court partially upholds law to shield kids from online porn

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court partially upheld a federal law Monday that is meant to keep Internet pornography away from children, but it kept alive a fight over whether the measure is an unconstitutional crimp on free speech.

The divided court deflected one of several challenges to the 1998 law, signed by former President Clinton and later endorsed by the Bush administration. The court then returned the case to a lower court for further review or a trial on free-speech questions left unresolved.

"It's a standstill. Nobody won" a complete victory, said Ann Beeson, the American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who urged the high court to strike down the law outright.

Both opponents and supporters predicted the case eventually will return to the Supreme Court for a conclusive ruling on the question at the heart of the case: In the name of protecting children, does the law restrict too much material that adults have the right to see or buy?

The Child Online Protection Act requires that operators of commercial Internet sites use credit cards or some form of adults-only screening system to ensure children cannot see material deemed harmful to them.