Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union

Summary

The Court held that the Child Online Protection Act’s reliance on community standards to identify material harmful to minors does not, by itself, render the statute substantially overbroad under the First Amendment. It vacated the Third Circuit’s judgment and remanded, leaving the preliminary injunction against enforcement intact and reserving other constitutional challenges. Justice Thomas wrote for a majority in Parts I, II, and IV; his additional reasoning in Part III received only plurality support. Justice O’Connor concurred in part and in the judgment, agreeing that substantial overbreadth had not been demonstrated but advocating a national standard for Internet obscenity. Justice Breyer concurred in part and in the judgment, construing the statute to incorporate national adult community standards. Justice Kennedy, joined by Justices Souter and Ginsburg, concurred in the judgment because the community-standards issue required consideration of the statute’s overall coverage, while declining to endorse the plurality’s broader reasoning. Justice Stevens dissented, concluding that applying geographically varying community standards to Internet speech substantially burdened protected expression and would have affirmed.