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Not all computer code protected as speech, US appeals court finds in ghost gun case
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/not-all-computer-code-protected-speech-us-appeals-court-finds-ghost-gun-case-2026-02-12/Feb 12 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday in favor of the New Jersey Attorney General's crackdown against a gun company over its distribution of computer code for 3D-printed guns, saying that the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment does not protect all forms of computer code as free speech.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of online gun business Defense Distributed's lawsuit against the attorney general’s office after agreeing that computer code that is purely functional — and not somehow expressive — would not fall under the First Amendment.
“To invoke the protections of the First Amendment, the proponent must show that the particular use of the code burdened by a regulation involves the expression or communication of ideas in a way that implicates the First Amendment,” Circuit Judge Cheryl Ann Krause, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel.
But the gun company, which sells computer code to make guns with 3D printers, and the gun rights group, the Second Amendment Foundation provided too little information about the code to determine whether the First Amendment applies either way, the court said.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of online gun business Defense Distributed's lawsuit against the attorney general’s office after agreeing that computer code that is purely functional — and not somehow expressive — would not fall under the First Amendment.
“To invoke the protections of the First Amendment, the proponent must show that the particular use of the code burdened by a regulation involves the expression or communication of ideas in a way that implicates the First Amendment,” Circuit Judge Cheryl Ann Krause, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel.
But the gun company, which sells computer code to make guns with 3D printers, and the gun rights group, the Second Amendment Foundation provided too little information about the code to determine whether the First Amendment applies either way, the court said.
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