A federal appeals court has upheld 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.
A three-judge panel from the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously June 22 that the act’s proof-of-age requirement places an undue economic burden on publishers. The decision also expressed concern about the overbreadth of COPA’s “contemporary community standards” clause, noting that the act “essentially requires that every Web publisher subject to the statute abide by the most restrictive and conservative state’s community standards in order to avoid criminal liability.”
Although the judges called Congress’s attempt to protect minors “laudatory,” they concluded that the act was “more likely than not to be found unconstitutional.”
The plaintiffs in the case are the American Civil Liberties Union and 17 online content providers. The Associated Press reported June 23 that the Justice Department had not yet decided whether to appeal the ruling.
Posted June 26, 2000.