In a clear victory for free speech, a federal court once again upheld a ban on a law that would criminalize constitutionally protected speech on the Internet. The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the unconstitutional Child Online Protection Act (COPA) on behalf of a broad coalition of writers, artists and health educators who use the internet to communicate constitutionally protected speech.
Previously, a federal district court and a federal appeals court found the online censorship law violates the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution. The Supreme Court upheld that decision, effectively banning enforcement of the law in June 2004 and sending the case back to the district court to determine whether there had been any changes in technology that would affect the constitutionality of the statute, such as whether commercially available blocking software was still as effective as the banned law might be in blocking material deemed "harmful to minors." In March 2007, a district judge once again struck down COPA; the government again appealed, and on July 22, 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld the ban. More >>
Ten Years of Defending Free Speech Online
1996 - Congress first attempted to censor the Internet >>
1998 - Congress passed the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) >>
2000 - The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) was signed into law >>
2004 - The Supreme Court upheld the district court's decision in COPA >>
2007 - A federal court again upheld challenge to COPA >> At the Trial
(More from the transcripts)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment