COPA Ruling Monday?

Published reports indicated late June 25 that the U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to rule on whether the Child Online Protection Act violates free expression on the Internet, possibly as soon as June 28.

The law has been in limbo until the full court journey for the 1988 law is finished, but American Civil Liberties Union attorney Ann Beeson told CNET News there would likely "be a shock wave" if the COPA is upheld. "We've been assuming on the Internet that there aren't laws like this."

The law has bumped between the lower courts and the Supremes since a federal judge struck it down in early 1999 and the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that lower ruling. In fact, the 3rd Circuit Court in two rulings said the law was unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds.

How the ruling Supreme Court opinion is written, if the high court upholds the COPA, could affect adult Websites variably, CNET said. "One possibility is that all commercial Websites would be prohibited from putting up 'teaser' images: COPA says Webmasters who employ measures such as credit card verification or require an 'adult access code' can't be prosecuted, as these would typically keep out minors," the tech news site added.

Observers of the Supreme Court and COPA have noted as recently as March that the high court was likely to have struggled with the law. "We know about books," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy – usually considered one of the Court's swing votes – was quoted as saying during March arguments. "Web sites are different."

Beeson had argued before the Court at that time that COPA would likely stifle or punish a very broad range of expression that belongs under First Amendment protection, telling the justices that censoring material harmful to minors could still equal censoring material adults have a right to see.

U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson argued for the COPA, saying Congress drafted it carefully to meet objections that killed the original Child Pornography Prevention Act and that the "problem of Internet pornography" remained a rising "menace…pervasive and essentially unavoidable."

The high court previously gutted both the CPPA and the Communications Decency Act, both of which sought to extend criminal law to Internet porn.