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Constitutional Law Keyed to Barnett
Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition
Citation:
535 U.S. 234 (2002)Facts
The Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 (CPPA) is a federal law that prohibits possession or distribution of child pornography. The CPPA had a provision that also prohibited sexually explicit content that appeared to depict minors, but that was not made using real children (using adults who look like minors or whose appearance has been altered using computer imaging). The Coalition members alleged that they did not use minors in their works, but that some of the materials may fall under the expanded materials prohibited under the CPPA. The Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult entertainment industry, challenged the law as unconstitutional under the First Amendment’s freedom of expression protections.
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Topic Resources
Topic Outline
First AmendmentTopic Refresher Course
Introduction to Freedom SpeechTopic Charts & Notes
First Amendment Chart