Justice Stevens’ legacy: porn and Amazon

Retiring justice blocked Congress from putting indecent material behind a paywall online.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced his retirement Friday. The oldest and most liberal member of the court had a big impact on today’s internet landscape. Most notably, he can be thanked for the ubiquity of porn, and Amazon’s competitive advantage.

In 1996, Congress passed and President Clinton signed the Communications Decency Act (CDA) which made it illegal to display anything indecent on a public website where it could be viewed by a minor. Every pornographic image would have been locked behind a paywall requiring a credit card verification as proof of age.

Stevens wrote the majority opinion in the decision that struck the law down, stating that "as a matter of constitutional tradition, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, we presume that governmental regulation of the content of speech is more likely to interfere with the free exchange of ideas than to encourage it. The interest in encouraging freedom of expression in a democratic society outweighs any theoretical but unproven benefit of censorship."

Whether the benefit has been proven by the rise in porn addiction and unintentional exposure to porn among minors in the intervening years is an interesting question.

Justice Stevens’ other big internet decision was Quill v. North Dakota. In 1992, the court found that internet retailers cannot be required to collect sales taxes on out-of-state sales. This gave companies like Amazon and Quill Corporation (which lent the case its name) a competitive advantage over traditional retailers like Best Buy that did have to charge sales taxes. The decision open the flood gates for ecommerce companies.

In a letter to President Obama, Stevens said he will step down when the court finishes its work in the summer, and hopes his successor will be confirmed “well in advance of the commencement of the court’s next term." President Obama praised the judge effusively from the White House. "We cannot replace Justice Stevens' experience or wisdom," he said. "I'll seek someone in the coming weeks with similar qualities.”

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