On Wednesday, the United States Supreme Court decided not to change a ruling that stated that a federal law aimed at keeping Internet pornographic content away from children was in violation of constitutional free-speech rights.

The high court rejected a Justice Department appeal that had attempted to keep the law valid, thus agreeing with the ones who had advocated that the Congressional initiative to regulate cyberspace and prevent children from being exposed to web pornography infringed on free-speech rights.

The law entailed that website operators use credit cards or adult access codes and personal identification numbers in order to keep children away from online porn, while those who failed to abide by it faced up to six months in prison and fines amounting to as much as $50,000 per day.

The child-porn law was adopted in 1998 after the Supreme Court had slashed another law called the Communications Decency Act, on grounds concerning free-speech rights, but it has never since been enforced because lower courts kept declaring it unconstitutional.

It was challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union, booksellers, online magazine publishers, among others, with lawyers having said that content filters would be more effective in the attempt to render children steer clear from porn, since the law would criminalize over 700 million Web pages.

The Justice Department appealed to the Supreme Court with regards to the law after a U.S. appeals court in Philadelphia had declared it unconstitutional, claiming it violated free-speech guarantees under the Constitution's First Amendment.

Nevertheless, the Supreme Court refused to hear the Justice Department's appeal and let stand the the appeals court ruling.