Legality of Obscenity at Center of Smut Case Appeal
by Allie Martin
October 20, 2005
(AgapePress) - An attorney with the Family Research Council (FRC) says a case before the Third U.S. Court of Appeals could have a big impact on obscenity laws nationwide. Two years ago, California-based Extreme Associates and its owners Robert Zicari and Janet Romano were indicted by the Department of Justice for selling videos with brutal and graphic depictions of sexual violence. However, earlier this year -- in a blow to the government's renewed crackdown on extreme, hard-core, violent porn -- U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster threw out those indictments, ruling that the government's ban on distribution of obscenity violated the public's constitutional rights to possess such material.
The pro-porn attorney had argued that if individuals were unable to purchase the material, "there really is no right. In order to be able to possess it, I need to be able to buy it."
This week, lawyers for both sides argued the case before a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Pittsburgh. Pat Trueman, legal counsel for FRC, says the case is another example of judicial activism.
"Congress has said that distribution of obscenity is illegal," Trueman points out. "[But] this judge [Lancaster] says obscenity should be legal. Unfortunately he has that power, even though it's an abusive power, and we hope the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit will agree with previous rulings of the Supreme Court of the United States that obscenity is properly illegal."
Trueman, who expects a ruling by next spring, contends the outcome of the case could have far-reaching implications. "[This] could have a very big impact," he says. "If this kind of material is legal, anything is legal."
And what will happen if the case is appealed even further? Truemen issues a warning. "There are members of the United States Supreme Court, like Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- former general counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union -- who would gladly rule that all obscene material is legal in America," he states.
For that reason, the FRC spokesman says, "we have to watch and pray for this case very closely."
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
