Supreme Court Rejection Nixes Child Online Protection Act
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a government attempt to resurrect the Child Online Protection Act of 1998, which has been repeatedly rebuffed by lower federal courts over a decade of judicial review. The justices let stand a unanimous ruling last July by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia declaring the law unconstitutional on First and Fifth Amendment grounds—which overturns COPA permanently.
The law, which barred websites from posting commercial online communication that is deemed “harmful to minors” unless the site uses an age-verification system to block viewers who are 17 or younger, has never been enforced due to an injunction granted in February 1999. The Supreme Court has twice previously sent the case back to lower courts.
The Philadelphia judges maintained that parental use of internet filters provided an “equally effective” means of shielding children from inappropriate material online. In October 2008, Bush administration lawyers disagreed and urged the high court to revive the law, the Chicago Tribune reported January 21.
The American Civil Liberties Union challenged COPA on behalf of a coalition of bookstores, publishers, and free-speech advocates. During the string of legal proceedings, the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read Foundation filed several amicus curiae briefs on behalf of the plaintiffs, the latest in November 2007 in the current case, American Civil Liberties Union v. Mukasey.
“We’re delighted that the Supreme Court has upheld the Third Circuit Court of Appeals’ opinion striking down the law,” said Judith Krug, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “COPA would have restricted access to a vast amount of constitutionally protected material on the internet, in violation of the First Amendment. We agree with Judge Lowell Reed, who observed that ‘perhaps we do the minors of this country harm if First Amendment protections, which they will with age inherit fully, are chipped away in the name of their protection.’”
Posted on January 21, 2009. Discuss.