Wired reports that an Arizona federal court has just overturned a law that barred prisoners from communicating via the Internet and that charged with misdemeanor any third party who created a website or accessed the Internet at the prisoner's request. (Prisoners who didn't comply with the law would have been criminally charged.)
The best part of the article is a quotation from a relative of somebody who was murdered by an inmate in Arizona prison:
"I hate to even think of the bastard who murdered my stepbrother sharing the same Internet as I do. . . . And I also hate to think that people are wasting their time fighting for that bastard's rights. But I guess when I calm down a bit, I'd say I support the advocates' right to do what they feel is correct. . . . I just don't believe in censorship, even though sometimes I wish I did."
A nice reminder that even in such an emotionally charged area, civil liberties should not lightly be sacrificed.