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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A House committee has endorsed a bill that backtracks on an anti-porn law that was enacted last year over warnings that it was unconstitutional and which is now embroiled in a lawsuit.
HB187 would repeal the portion of the law that required Utah's attorney general to maintain a database of adult-content sites.
Last year, legislative attorneys warned that that part of the bill had "high probability of being held unconstitutional," as the registry was likely to block access to significant amounts of constitutionally protected material hosted on proxy servers that also contained material harmful to minors.
Rep. John Dougall, R-Highland, was the sponsor of last year's bill and also is the sponsor of this year's bill.
He said last year's bill intended to send a message, and he believes that message has been heard because members of Congress have looked into creating a federal program to help block children's access to Internet pornography.
Shortly after Dougall's bill became law last year, the American Civil Liberties Union and 13 other plaintiffs sued. That litigation is still in process.
Dougall was asked three times during the committee hearing why he wanted to repeal the adult-content registry.
Dougall denied the repeal had anything to do with the lawsuit and he also proposed an amendment that struck language in his bill that said it was "in response to a current lawsuit."
"I felt the adult content registry was not required at this time," he said.
He said repealing the registry would save about $120,000 per year.
Some portions of the law would remain in place under HB187. It still would require Internet service providers to provide filtering tools, but now they could charge for the service if they want to. It also still would require sites hosted in Utah to label material harmful to minors.
Margaret Plane, legal director for Utah's chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, declined comment on the matter, the Daily Herald of Provo said.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
