Cite as: 542 U. S. 656 (2004)
Opinion of the Court
stantial practical considerations, furthermore, argue in favor
of upholding the injunction and allowing the case to proceed
to trial. For those reasons, we affirm the decision of the
Court of Appeals upholding the preliminary injunction, and
we remand the case so that it may be returned to the District
Court for trial on the issues presented.
I
A
COPA is the second attempt by Congress to make the Internet safe for minors by criminalizing certain Internet
speech. The first attempt was the Communications Decency
Act of 1996, Pub. L. 104-104, § 502, 110 Stat. 133, 47 U. S. C.
§223 (1994 ed., Supp. II). The Court held the CDA unconstitutional because it was not narrowly tailored to serve a
compelling governmental interest and because less restrictive alternatives were available. Reno, supra.
In response to the Court's decision in Reno, Congress
passed COPA. COPA imposes criminal penalties of a
$50,000 fine and six months in prison for the knowing posting, for "commercial purposes," of World Wide Web content
that is "harmful to minors." §231(a)(1). Material that is
"harmful to minors" is defined as:
"any communication, picture, image, graphic image file,
article, recording, writing, or other matter of any kind
that is obscene or that"(A) the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find, taking the material as a
whole and with respect to minors, is designed to appeal
to, or is designed to pander to, the prurient interest;
"(B) depicts, describes, or represents, in a manner patently offensive with respect to minors, an actual or
simulated sexual act or sexual contact, an actual or
simulated normal or perverted sexual act, or a lewd