From: "E. ALLEN SMITH" <EALLENSMITH@ocelot.Rutgers.EDU>
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 11:54:16 +0800
To: declan+@CMU.EDU
Subject: Re: Spin Control Alert (LI Newsday, 2/12/96)
Message-ID: <01I1DHQJZMK0A0V3WD@mbcl.rutgers.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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From:	IN%"declan+@CMU.EDU"  "Declan B. McCullagh" 17-FEB-1996 18:07:51.71

>A lawsuit against the atheist would not be effective and could result in
>a countersuit for abuse of process.

	Huh? You seem to have misinterpreted what I said. The atheist, who has
a child that reads the net, sues a Christian Fundamentalist organization (say,
one of the Southern Baptist seminaries) for having a copy of the Bible - which
contains material that is among the "seven dirty words" or whatever - online,
where the child can read it. The CDA essentially says that a child reading
indecent materials is doing harm to the child (a nice bit of nonsense), which
gives the government the (undeserved) power to regulate such interactions.
A countersuit will be somewhat difficult, since the organization in question
(the one with the Bible online) is breaking the law; while there have been
burglar suing because of broken leg cases, I believe that such are generally
thrown out - possibly due to laws on the subject.
	Now, the jury won't find the seminary or whoever liable... but it would
create some publicity and tie the sued organization up for a while. It's
something that I'd encourage an atheist organization to sponsor.
	-Allen