Appeals Court Questions Constitutionality
of Child Online Protection Act
A federal appeals court began hearing oral arguments November 4 in the Justice Department’s effort to overturn an injunction blocking enforcement of the Child Online Protection Act, which requires commercial Web sites to obtain proof of age before delivering material considered harmful to minors.
The New York Times’s Cybertimes Web site reported that the questioning indicated the three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia had strong reservations about the law’s constitutionality. Judge Leonard I. Garth asked which community’s standards would be used in evaluating content, observing that the law raised the possibility that the most socially conservative areas of the country “would be the ceiling for the rest of us.”
Judge Theodore A. McKee was disturbed by the law’s provision that sites restrict access through credit-card gateways or other age-verification devices. He observed this would force adults to identify themselves even though they had a First Amendment right to the material, commenting that this could be troubling for users seeking information on sensitive topics such as homosexuality.
The judges are not expected to rule in the case for several months.
Posted November 8, 1999.
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