Which of the following laws was upheld as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court?
A. Communications Decency Act
B. Child Online Protection Act
C. Child Internet Protection Act
D. All of these laws were upheld as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
I think it's D, but not sure.
No. At least one of these was overturned.
I thought it was D, but it was incorrect.
To determine the correct answer, let's take a closer look at each of the laws and the Supreme Court's decisions regarding them:
A. Communications Decency Act (CDA): The CDA was passed in 1996 to regulate indecent and offensive content on the internet. However, in Reno v. ACLU (1997), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that key provisions of the CDA were unconstitutional due to violations of the First Amendment's free speech protections. Therefore, the CDA was not upheld as constitutional.
B. Child Online Protection Act (COPA): COPA was enacted in 1998 with the aim of protecting minors from accessing harmful material online. In 2004, the Supreme Court heard Ashcroft v. ACLU, which involved a challenge to COPA's constitutionality. The Court did not explicitly rule on the constitutionality of COPA but remanded the case back to a lower court, effectively preventing its enforcement. Therefore, COPA was not definitively upheld.
C. Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA): CIPA was enacted in 2000 and requires schools and libraries that receive federal funding for internet access to implement measures to filter and protect minors from obscene, harmful, or inappropriate material. In 2003, the Supreme Court, in United States v. American Library Association, upheld CIPA as constitutional, ruling that it did not violate the First Amendment. Thus, CIPA is the law that was upheld as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
D. All of these laws were upheld as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court: This option is incorrect because, as discussed above, only the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA) was upheld as constitutional.
Therefore, the correct answer is C. Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA).