icits, and initiates the transmission of any comment, request, suggestion, proposal, image, or other communication which is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent, with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass another person" (Exon). As a separate section of Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the CDA was written in the amended section 223 (47 U.S.C. 223) of the Communication Act of 1934. The Act intended to impose fines and/or up to two year prison sentences for violators. Exon's initial proposal of the Act was defeated and then revised to be signed into law by President Clinton on February 8, 1996. The CDA's original intention was to pursue minors access to indecent materials but grew to encompass all citizens regardless of age. By signing the Act into law, President Clinton created an uproar across the country from those that opposed the free speech restrictions outlined in the CDA.
             Proponents of the CDA were headed up by Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy who introduced a bill to repeal the CDA immediately after it was introduced. Senators Leahy's basis for invalidating the act maintained that it was an infringement of every citizens right to free speech. In his statement to President Clinton, Leahy said, "Today I am introducing a bill to repeal parts of the new law, parts I feel would have far-reaching implications and would impose far-reaching new Federal crimes on Americans for exercising their free speech rights on-line and on the Internet. The parts of the telecommunications bill called the "Co
             ...