Yesterday the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling striking down the controversial Child Online Protection Act (COPA); the law required Web operators to restrict access to large amounts of constitutionally protected speech.  COPA placed severe restrictions on a wide range of legal, socially valuable speech, including content relating to sexual identity, health and art.

In its ruling today the court said COPA “cannot withstand a strict scrutiny, vagueness, or overbreadth analysis and thus is unconstitutional.”  The appeals court decision was the seventh since 1998 that found serious constitutional problems with COPA. 

Throughout the history of legal challenges to COPA, we have argued that the most effective way to protect children online, and the means least restrictive of free expression, is to give families the resources to control what their children see and do online.   This empowers parents, respects the First Amendment and acknowledges the diverse sensibilities of American families.

Over the course of 12 years Congress has tried to criminalize protected speech online, all in the name of protecting children; those attempts have failed miserably.

Congress should not return to the consistently rejected approach of censoring the Internet. Instead, Congress should promote education and the availability of filtering technology.

- John Morris, General Counsel

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 12:57 pm and is filed under Politics, Technology .