Judge Dale Kimball in the Utah District Court in Salt Lake City today denied the Free Speech Coalition's motion for preliminary injunction against the Utah Child Protection Registry. In so ruling, the judge found the arguments that the registry violated the constitution completely without merit. The so-called Free Speech Coalition, a lobbying group for the pornography industry, sued the State of Utah in order to strike down the Child Protection Registry law. The judge held that the Utah law is not overly burdensome and senders of adult-oriented email and other electronic communications must continue to comply with the law.

The U.S. Department of Justice today filed with the Federal District Court a Statement of Interest on behalf of the United States in the case brought by the pornography industry challenging the Utah Child Protection Registry. The Statement clarified two interpretations of Federal law at issue in the case. First, the United States explains, "[c]ontrary to plaintiff's position, the CAN-SPAM Act does not preempt the Utah Child Protection Registry Act." Second, the United States argues that the Utah Child Protection Act is not a violation of the First Amendment. The United States concludes: "It is a virtue of our federal system that states can ... provide the 'laboratories' for experiments that the federal government is not prepared to implement on a national basis ... The protection of the fundamental right of parents to protect their children from harmful sexually-oriented material is indisputably a worthy goal. At this preliminary stage, plaintiff has not provided the Court with any basis for its request that the Court halt Utah's experiment in its tracks."

Less than three years ago, unsolicited commercial e-mail made up two-thirds, roughly 83 percent, of all e-mail sent in the United States, according to e-mail monitoring firm MessageLabs, Inc. In answer to this over-whelming trend of Internet spam, Utah and Michigan pushed legislation that created a do-not-spam registry designed to protect children from inappropriate e-mail and text messages. However, Utah's law is under attack from The Free Speech Coalition. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff rightfully filed to dismiss the lawsuit.

We support Shurtleff and contend that while freedom of expression is essential, so is freedom from unreasonable, disruptive and potentially injurious offenses on innocent, unsuspecting children with material unfit and illegal for their viewing. Minors also can't legally purchase merchandise solicited so the commerce concerns seem far-fetched. Furthermore, Utah's Act does not conflict with federal law, it simply heightened the standard to safeguard its youngest residents and technology users.

Francine Giani, Executive Director of the Utah Department of Commerce, announced that the Division of Consumer Protection has issued Administrative Citations against four companies for sending gambling, alcohol and pornographic solicitations through emails to Utah children located in Davis County, Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City.

“These companies ignored the law and sent illegal offers into the homes of Utah children,” said Francine Giani, “Now they will have to pay the price for soliciting minors over the internet.” The Utah Child Protection Registry prohibits the sending of certain materials to a registered contact point. Families can register their children’s names for free by visiting www.kidsregsitry.utah.gov.

The Utah Department of Commerce enforced the state's Child Protection Registry by issuing citations on September 28, 2006, against four companies for sending adult-oriented solicitations to minors in Davis and Salt Lake Counties and Salt Lake City.

To date, the department of commerce has cited one other company, an Internet porn vendor, in addition to the four announced Thursday. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said he fully intends to seek judgments against those companies, including those overseas, even though odds of getting them to pay up are narrow. "It's slim, there's no doubt about that, but I think we have to try," Shurtleff said. "We'll push it as far as we can."