FC: GOP legislators to Supremes: Save our anti-Internet porn law!
Declan McCullagh
declan at well.com
Wed Jul 25 14:29:52 PDT 2001
The amicus brief to be filed Friday:
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/copa.congress.072501.html
Politech archive on the Child Online Protection Act law and lawsuit:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=copa
Supreme Court agrees to hear case:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02048.html
Federal judge rules that COPA violates First Amendment:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-00217.html
Note from Bruce Taylor <BruceTaylor at NationalLawCenter.org>, who drafted the
brief:
>(we made changes to the cover and page 1 on Interest of Amici, since Senator
>Coats cannot be an amicus because of his nomination to be Ambassador to
>Germany)
>
>Attached is a corrected final Brief of Members of Congress in Ashcroft v
>ACLU, No. 00-1293, to be filed Friday, July 27th, instead of tomorrow.
>
>We renamed it "COPA final USSC Cong amicus brief 7-27-01"
>
>Transmissions scrambled some formatting and we had to re-justify the margins
>and re-send to the printer. This one should be fully justified, but
>otherwise same text. If you copy or post, please use this one, which will
>look like the printed one filed with the Court (hopefully).
-Declan
***********
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/copa.congress.072501.html
Summary Of Argument
The Court of Appeals committed clear error in its refusal to narrowly
construe the Child Online Protection Act's definition of "Harmful To
Minors," 47 U.S.C. § 231 (e)(6), within a constitutionally valid scope and
lend the necessary authoritative construction intended by Congress as a
limitation on the test for what is "Obscene For Minors" to a
constitutionally valid, non-geographic "adult" age community standard,
rather than an unconstitutionally territorial geographic community
standard. ACLU v. Reno, 217 F.3d 162, 173-78 (3d Cir. 2000), reh. denied
(2000).
Congress enacted COPA with specific recognition of this Court's mandate
that the application of obscenity-related tests for separating pornography
that may be regulated from First Amendment protected speech depends on the
medium. FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726, 750 (1978).
The Congressional intent expressed in its Report of the House Committee on
Commerce, H. Rept. No. 105-775, at 28 (1998) (House Report to accompany
H.R. 3783, 105th Cong., 2d Sess.), was that COPA was to be adapted to the
World Wide Web by using a "new" standard of what the American adult-age
community as a whole would find prurient and offensive for minors in the
probable recipient age group. The Third Circuit refused to adopt this
Congressionally intended customization of the "harmful to minors" test and,
by such refusal, interpreted the Act in an unconstitutional fashion. ACLU,
217 F.3d at 178. By doing so, that Court, as had the District Court below,
failed in its duty to properly construe this federal statute so as to save
it for valid application within constitutional boundaries.
For these reasons, this Court should reverse the decision of the Court of
Appeals, and remand the cause to the Third Circuit for a narrowing
authoritative construction to guide the District Court in the trial on the
merits.
Remainder at:
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/copa.congress.072501.html
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