Aug. 19, 2004

Ruling Shows Internet Requires Great Judicial Protection

Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - In the flurry of decisions at the end of the Supreme Court's term in late June, not nearly enough attention has been paid to the implications of its ruling in Ashcroft v. ACLU, 124 S.Ct. 2783 (2004). By a 5-4 margin, the Supreme Court upheld a preliminary injunction preventing implementation of the Child Online Protection Act, a federal law requiring that sexually explicit, commercial Web sites perform age verification.

Erwin Chemerinsky

Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law UC Berkeley School of Law

Erwin's most recent book is "Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism." He is also the author of "Closing the Courthouse," (Yale University Press 2017).