This June, in Ashcroft v. ACLU II, the Supreme Court called into question the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA). This was the Court’s third encounter with congressional attempts to regulate Internet pornography, and COPA represented Congress’s latest effort to address judicial objections raised to an earlier version of the law. As written, COPA imposed up to six months in prison and a $50,000 fine on those who posted online, for commercial purposes, obscene material that is “harmful to minors.” The law explicitly protected Internet publishers from liability if they attempted to prevent underage access by requiring the … Continue reading The End of Obscenity