Earlier this year Judge Reed of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled that the Child Online Protection Act (“COPA”) is facially violative of the First and Fifth Amendments, and permanently enjoined the Attorney General from “enforcing or prosecuting matters premised upon COPA at any time for any conduct.” The government appealed.

Yesterday amici curiae filed a brief with the Third Circuit, expressing their concern “about Congress’ attempt to censor what this Court has recognized to be a ‘dynamic, multifaceted category of communication’ – the Internet – by transforming it into a ‘child-proof’ medium whose ‘level of discourse’ would be reduced to that ‘suitable for a sandbox.’ The First Amendment does not allow such sanitizing of public discourse, however well intentioned.” The Center for Democracy and Technology, one of the eighteen amici, includes a link to the brief on its website.

Plaintiffs/Appellees include American Civil Liberties Union; Androgyny Books, Inc., d/b/a A Different Light Bookstores; American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; Addazi, Inc., d/b/a Condomania; Electronic Frontier Foundation; Electronic Privacy Information Center; Free Speech Media; Philadelphia Gay News; Powell’s Bookstores; Salon Media Group, Inc.; Planetout, Inc.; Heather Corinna; Nerve.Com, Inc.; Aaron Peckham, d/b/a Urban Dictionary; Public Communicators, Inc.; Dan Savage; and Sexual Health Network.

Amici curiae that filed yesterday’s brief include American Society of Newspaper Editors; Association of American Publishers, Inc.; Center for Democracy & Technology; Comic Book Legal Defense Fund; Computer & Communications Industry Association; Freedom To Read Foundation; Information Technology Association of America; Internet Alliance; Media Access Project; National Association of Recording Merchandisers; National Cable Television Association; Net Coalition; Newspaper Association of America; Online Publishers Association; People for the American Way Foundation; PMA, The Independent Book Publishers Association; Society of Professional Journalists; and United States Internet Service Provider Association.