Does the First Amendment protect online speech?
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says that “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” Under the First Amendment and cases interpreting it, the federal government (and states, under the Fourteenth Amendment) must meet a high level of scrutiny before restricting any kind of speech. In the first Supreme Court case dealing with the Internet, Reno v. ACLU, the Supreme Court affirmed that online speech deserves as much protection as off-line speech.
