ACLU Wins Again - Federal Court Again Says COPA Unconstitutional

In a clear victory for free speech, a federal court once again held that the ACLU is right and the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), a law that would criminalize constitutionally protected speech on the Internet, is unconstitutional.

This decision is the latest in the ACLU's 10-year battle to defend free speech on the Internet.

The American Civil Liberties Union challenged COPA on behalf of a broad coalition of writers, artists and health educators who use the internet to communicate constitutionally protected speech.

The law would have imposed civil and criminal penalties on those placing information on the Internet that is "harmful to minors." In doing so, adults would have been prevented from viewing vast swaths of constitutionally protected material just because it was deemed unfit for a child.

"Preventing adults from accessing this information under the guise of protecting children is not permissible," said Aden Fine, Senior Staff Attorney with the ACLU First Amendment Working group. "There are more effective, less intrusive tools available to limit what minors can access on the Internet."

The court agreed, holding that COPA is not adequately narrowly tailored to advance the government's interest in protecting children; there are less restrictive, equally effective alternatives to COPA; and COPA is unconstitutionally overbroad and vague.

For more information about the COPA case, see here.

For more information about ACLU's work on internet free speech issues, please see the ACLU National webpage and the ACLU of Northern California internet free speech page.