Last week, the association of advertisers, Email Sender and Provider Coalition and Center for Democracy and Technology were granted the right to file a friend of the court brief in a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the state's privately-run e-mail registry.

At a news conference Tuesday, the Utah PTA and legislative leaders announced their plans to file their own brief, in support of the state's registry.

Companies pay Park City-based Unspam to filter their e-mail lists against the registry. The process is meant to protect children from solicitations for adult businesses, including porn, gambling and tobacco. But the Free Speech Coalition, a group of sexually-oriented businesses, has sued the state, claiming the law is unconstitutional.

Nevertheless, State Attorney General Mark Shurtleff urged parents to sign their children up for e-mail protection. "Parents have the right to close the doors to keep porn out of their homes and out of the view from their children," he said in a news release.

- Rebecca Walsh