speech regulations, because while preventing children from accessing harmful material on the Internet was a compelling government interest, the statute was not narrowly tailored enough to enable other uses, including consenting adults, to access such material voluntarily, and (given the availability of filtering software) the statute was not the least restrictive means of achieving the government's goals. While allowing the injunction against the enforcement of COPA to stand, the Supreme Court gave the government one more chance to argue its case, due to the now clarified definitions of "contemporary community standards" and other matters. Thus the trial portion of the legal challenge was remanded back to the district court. Dissenting opinions Justice Antonin Scalia dissented, arguing that pornography in the media deserved no constitutional protection regardless of the existence of COPA, so that statute should not have been subjected to the strict scrutiny test. Justice Stephen Breyer delivered another dissent, arguing that COPA was indeed the least restrictive means to achieve the government's compelling interest in shielding children from Internet pornography. Subsequent developments The case was remanded to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and went to trial again in 2006, at which time the government was given the opportunity to update its arguments in favor of enforcing COPA. The district court rejected the government's updated arguments, and this decision was appealed again to the Third Circuit. The circuit court ruled against the government again in 2008, once again upholding the injunction against enforcement. The government appealed this decision to the Supreme Court yet again in 2009, but this time the court denied certiorari, effectively striking COPA from the United States code, with the law never having taken effect. See also List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 535 Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002), which dealt with a similar law, the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996. References External links Summary of COPA cases from People for the American Way Summary of PFAW's involvement in ACLU v. Ashcroft Washington Post transcript of online discussion of COPA with ACLU Associate Legal Director Ann Beeson United States Supreme Court cases United States obscenity case law United States Internet case law 2002 in United States case law Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union United States Supreme Court cases of the Rehnquist Court United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit cases