Children’s Internet Protection Act Struck Down As Unconstitutional

On May 31, 2002 the three-judge federal judicial panel in Philadelphia overseeing the challenge to the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) struck down the law as "facially invalid under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution." CIPA was Congress’s third legislative attempt to protect children from Internet pornography. It would have withheld government subsidies from libraries unless they installed filtering software on computers that provide Internet access to the public. The panel’s decision and order agreed with plaintiffs, represented primarily by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and enjoined the U.S. government from withholding federal funds for failure to comply with the law by installing filtering software.