Child Online Protection Act (COPA) blocked

By Michael Fraase

Thursday, 04 February 1999 06:02PM CST

Section: Censorship

The second major Congressional effort to restrict access to constitutionally protected speech on the Internet, the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), was blocked on February 1, 1999 by a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Lowell A. Reed Jr. issued a strong opinion blocking the law that was signed by President Clinton in October 1998. “Indeed, perhaps we do the minors of this country harm if First Amendment protections, which they will with age inherit fully, are chipped away in the name of their protection,” Judge Reed wrote in his opinion.

Judge Reed’s preliminary injunction stops the law from taking effect and replaces a temporary restraining order he had granted in November 1998.

Sponsors of the COPA legislation—Representatives Michael Oxley (R-Ohio), Thomas Bliley (R-Virginia), and James Greenwood (R-Pennsylvania)—all urged the government to appeal the decision all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary. “Traditional laws for minors at the state level have worked effectively to protect children from raw pornography without limiting adults’ free expression or access to legal materials,” the COPA sponsors wrote in a news release. “Through COPA we seek only to apply the same common-sense standard to the World Wide Web as prevails in the rest of our free democratic society.”

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