November 4, 2014 12:00 AM Share with others:

By P.J. DAnnunzio / The Legal Intelligencer

The Commonwealth Court has ruled in an apparent issue of first impression that reporting a convicted sex offenders Internet aliases under Megans Law IV would not violate his First Amendment rights.

The decision from a seven-judge Commonwealth Court panel came in response to Richard Coppolinos request to be removed from the sex offender registry. The en banc panel rejected his argument that being required to disclose his Internet identities infringes on his right to anonymous free speech.

Coppolino asserted that since he was convicted and completed his sentence before Megans Law IV was enacted, having to comply with certain provisions of the law constituted retroactive punishment.

Coppolino, convicted of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, also argued that the provision of Megans Law requiring the reporting of Internet names designed to protect minors was overbroad in the context of his case because his crime did not involve a minor or the Internet, Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer wrote in the courts opinion.

Judge Jubelirer said under Megans Law, any of Coppolinos Internet identifiers must be included on a statewide sex-offender registry. She added that registry information is disseminated in four ways: among law enforcement agencies; for the purposes of notifying victims and communities; and on a public website.

Because none of the avenues of dissemination of registry information applicable in this case involve disclosure of registrants Internet identifiers, we conclude that the requirement that registrants disclose their Internet identifiers does not burden the right to anonymous speech. Because this provision does not burden a registrants First Amendment rights, it is not overbroad, Judge Jubelirer said.

(Copies of the 52-page opinion in Coppolino v. Noonan, PICS No. 14-1628, are available from The Legal Intelligencer. Please call the Pennsylvania Instant Case Service at 1-800-276-PICS to order or for information.)

P.J. DAnnunzio can be contacted at 1-215-557-2315 or pdannunzio@alm.com. Follow him on Twitter @PJDannunzioTLI.

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Sex offender must register Web IDs under Megans Law