The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld Tuesday the decision taken by a lower court and ordered a permanent injunction against enforcement of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA). The Child Online Protection Act, which passed in 1998, sought to protect minors from some harmful sexual material on the Internet.

The embattled law was last struck down by U.S. District Judge Lowell A. Reed, Jr. in March last year. He said the law facially violates the First and Fifth Amendments of the United States Constitution and ordered a permanent injunction barring the government from enforcing COPA. The U.S. government appealed, which led to the current ruling.

The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said that the current software and hardware filtering technologies and other tools offer a less restrictive way to protect children from inappropriate content. The court claims that "because COPA is a content-based restriction on protected speech, it is presumptively invalid and the Government bears the burden of showing its constitutionality."

The Child Online Protection Act essentially requires distributors of "material harmful to minors" (read: porn sites) to have ways of preventing access by minors. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) applauded the latest turn in the COPA history and said it is a victory for free speech.

The Supreme Court has handed down two preliminary rulings, once in 2002, when it returned the case to the Circuit Court, and again in 2004, when it upheld the injunction on enforcement, ruling that the law was likely to be unconstitutional.