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Court Rehears COPA AppealThe federal appeals court in Philadelphia once again listened to arguments in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act, which bans commercial Web sites from allowing visitors under 18 to access material deemed harmful to minors. During 45 minutes of testimony October 29, a three-judge panel of the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals considered the legality of enforcing local community standards on a borderless Internet, the CNet online news service reported. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court returned the case to the Philadelphia, saying that the lower court had not sufficiently examined whether COPA’s reliance on contemporary community standards violated free speech. “We thought the arguments went very well,” said American Civil Liberties Union Attorney Ann Beeson, “and we’re confident that the judges will keep the preliminary injunction against COPA in place.” Passed in 1998, COPA has never been enforced due to injunctions and lower-court decisions won by the ACLU on behalf of 17 plaintiffs. The American Library Association’s Freedom to Read Foundation filed an amicus brief for the plaintiffs in September 1999. Posted November 4, 2002. |
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