SOPA and the Constitution→

I have written before (here and here) about the bills now before Congress that go by the name of PROTECT IP in the Senate and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) in the House of Representatives.  There are many reasons why these are bad bills, and an alternative approach has recently been proposed.  Since discussions about the flaws in these bills has entered the mainstream media, I have not felt a strong need to continue to write about them.  But I do think it is worthwhile to point readers to a blog post by Professor Marvin Ammori on the legal blog Balkinization about why he and Lawrence Tribe of Harvard have both written to Congress, independently, about the unconstitutionality of the bills.  This is a different, and in many ways more fundamental, objection then those that I have seen elsewhere.  Let’s hope Congress is listening.