California Gun, Web Safety Laws Colliding With First Amendment

California efforts to avoid the reach of First Amendment protections failed twice in less than a week as a pair of state laws aimed at protecting children from gun advertisers and internet predators were blocked by separate federal court rulings.

“California is a good example for enacting good laws. What’s happening in the court is a different story,” said Gaia Bernstein, the Seton Hall University School of Law technology, privacy and policy professor and co-director of the Institute for Privacy Protection.

First, on Sept. 13, the San Francisco-based US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit barred enforcement ...