Courts Hand Yet Another Defeat to COPA

Just yesterday we blogged about how the government asked the full 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider the decision of the three-judge panel that ruled the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) unconstitutional — for the third time. Just today the court denied the government’s request for a rehearing. The government now has the option of appealing the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which it will surely do. But as we said yesterday, it’s time for the government to stop wasting taxpayer dollars on fruitless litigation. Instead, that money should be used to spur the development of user empowerment technologies and to encourage parents to take control over what Internet content their children consume.