A No-Decision Decision: Supreme Court Sends COPA Back to Court of Appeals
In a complex decision that provided neither side with exactly what it wanted, on May 13, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling that had declared the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) unconstitutional. In a vote of 8-1, the Supreme Court vacated a decision of the Third U.S. Court of Appeals, which had held that COPA was unconstitutional because the laws use of "community standards" to identify material that was harmful to minors was "substantially overbroad."