The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) on behalf of a coalition of writers, artists and health educators who use the Internet to communicate constitutionally protected speech.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in its ruling that the COPA law "cannot withstand a strict scrutiny, vagueness, or overbreadth analysis and thus is unconstitutional."

Previously, a federal district court and a federal appeals court found the online censorship law violates the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution. The Supreme Court upheld that decision, banning enforcement of the law in 2004 and sending the case back to district court to determine if there had been any changes in technology that would affect the constitutionality of the statute.

"Our clients provide valuable and necessary health and news information. 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."
 

Until last week’s report, it was only known by most that Google, MSN, Yahoo!, and AOL were subpoenaed by the DOJ to release searcher information. And then, it may not have been known if Google hadn’t denied that request.

It turns out that a total of 34 companies received governmental inquiries. Among them were EarthLink, LookSmart, AT&T, Comcast, Symantec, Verizon, Bell South, Cox Communication, and Time Warner.

According to the article, at least two companies objected to the request: Cable Systems Corp., who said the request was “overly broad, vague, ambitious, and unduly burdensome;” and Verizon Online, who was concerned about documents being revealed to parties already suing the company like the DOJ and the ACLU.

Google was successful originally in persuading the government to pare down its initial request, but refused to deliver any information until the matter reached the courts. Last month, a federal judge forced Google to release some of the requested information.

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