Sevier is promoting what he calls the "Elizabeth Smart Law," named after the 15-year-old teenage girl kidnapped from her Utah home in 2002. Smart sent a cease-and-desist letter to the lawyer earlier this month requesting that her name be stricken from the bill, a spokesperson telling AP that she did not give him authorization to use her name.
A Rhode Island court is expected to hear a draft of the bill on Tuesday. Sevier's bill includes requiring internet service providers and those who sell devices with internet capabilities to install a filter which screens out obscene materials or prostitution websites. The block can be lifted via a payment of $20.
Commenting on the Sevier's proposal, the American Civil Liberties Union has said that the idea was unconstitutional, infringing on privacy and screening out lewd but otherwise legal content.
Earlier this month, a Utah court dismissed an anti-same-sex marriage lawsuit initiated by Sevier, who claimed that gay couples' right to marry gave him the right to marry his MacBook. Sevier had filed similar lawsuits in Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas over the past two years, all of them thrown out. Sevier had his license to practice law suspended in 2011 on disability/mental health grounds.
