The ACLU and the Child Online Protection ActThe Child Online Protection Act (COPA) was passed by Congress on August 16, 1998. The purpose of this wise is to demonstrate how the ACLU has destroyed this family-oriented act. Immediately after the president signed COPA, the American Civil Liberties Union and a coalition of groups representing publishers, Internet service providers, journalists, and the technology industry challenged the law in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Federal District Court Judge Lowell A. Reed, Jr. issued a temporary restraining order preventing the government from enforcing COPA. On January 11, 1999, both sides filed briefs arguing the constitutionality of the law. (ACLU) Congress's intent in adopting COPA was to protect minor children from accessing free erotic "teaser" images available on commercial pornography sites on the World Wide Web. To accomplish this government interest, the law requires specifically that sellers of commercial pornography collect a credit card or adult PIN or access number to ensure that visiting children or teenagers are not able to see sexually explicit images on the front pages of advertisements. WWW pornography. sites. COPA carries a penalty of up to six months in prison and a $50,000 fine for each violation. Plaintiffs asserted in their brief that COPA violates the First Amendment because: (1) It creates an effective prohibition on constitutionally protected speech by and to adults, and is not the least restrictive means of achieving any governmental purpose, and therefore is substantially excessive; (2) Interferes with the rights of minors to access and view material that is not harmful to them by prohibiting the dissemination of any material with sexual content that is "harmful to minors" of any age, notwithstanding the fact that the material will not be “harmful” for all minors; (3) Inhibits an individual's right to communicate and access information anonymously; and (4) It is unconstitutionally vague. The government argued that COPA is carefully limited in scope to address only the problem of "teaser" images that exist on the World Wide Web (meaning the law excludes other Internet services, Usenet, email). , BBS, chat and online services) and furthermore the government argued that the law is aimed exclusively at commercial sellers of pornography deemed "obscene to minors" or "harmful to minors" (meaning all non-commercial and non-commercial products profit). educational, government, and private communications are excluded).