Reisman: Oregon Cases Further Validate ACLU's Alliance with Porn Industry
by James L. Lambert
October 21, 2005
(AgapePress) - A long-time child protection advocate believes recent rulings in two high-profile Oregon cases are further proof that the ACLU no longer defends "the little guy," but instead sides with the multi-billion-dollar porn industry. Noted author, researcher, and WorldNetDaily contributing writer Dr. Judith Reisman said this week that two recent Oregon Supreme Court cases -- State of Oregon v. Ciancanelli and City of Nyssa v. Dufloth/Smith -- further validate the continued commitment of the American Civil Liberties Union to the pornography industry. Reisman says the recently decided cases in Oregon demonstrate that the ACLU will defend the most extreme elements of a sex-oriented business that now, with these cases, includes "live sex" shows.
In past times, the researcher notes, the ACLU has defended child pornography, another form of extreme pornography. In a quietly prosecuted case in the early 1980s (New York v. Ferber), the ACLU won a 2-5 decision in the New York Court of Appeals that, for a short time, "legalized simulated intercourse, real intercourse, lewd conduct ... with children," says the author of the soon-to-be-released book Kinsey's Attic: How One Man's Psychopathology Changed the World. Fortunately, she says, that case was later appealed by the New York attorney general and ultimately reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Reisman asserts that the two Oregon cases -- like Ferber -- demonstrate just how far the ACLU will go in defending pornographers.
Late last month, Oregon's high court struck down a state law that banned live sex shows (Ciancanelli) as well as an ordinance that regulated the conduct of nude dancers (Dufloth). The court, in two majority 5-1 decisions, ruled that both laws violated the state's freedom of speech and expression as stated in the Oregon State Constitution, which was written in 1859. The lone dissenter in both cases, Justice Paul De Muniz, could not concur with the five other justices who viewed "masturbation and sexual intercourse in a 'live public show'" as a form of speech provided for in the state constitution. In both cases, the Oregon chapter of the ACLU filed an amicus curiae supporting the right of the strip club owners to facilitate sexual contact between consenting adults.
Reisman says the amicus curiae filings in both Oregon cases shows that the American Civil Liberties Union "continues to make it a practice to defend members of the sex industrial complex." And she wonders out load: "Whatever happened to the ACLU defending the little guy?" It is generally estimated by a number of media groups that total revenues from the domestic porn industry range from $12 to $14 billion annually. Other estimates put total revenue from the sex industry more than $40 billion dollars worldwide.
Dr. Reisman remembers when she debated the well-known First Amendment and ACLU lawyer, Herald Fahringer, at Bucknell University in April 1987. She recalls telling Fahringer -- who argued for the respondent both in Ferber and The People vs. Larry Flynt -- then that she was being harshly defamed by Playboy magazine as an advocate for victims of that industry.
She asked the ACLU attorney, in a public setting, "if the ACLU would defend me?" Fahringer quipped back: "But Judith, you know that it would be a conflict of interest." Reisman followed by pointing out to Fahringer that "the ACLU has never defended any victim of the pornography" trade.
Dr. Reisman contends the ACLU continues to misinform people that it is the "defender of the little guy." The author of the upcoming WND/Cumberland Press book says she would like to see this myth dispelled -- and dispelled quickly.
James L. Lambert, a frequent contributor to AgapePress, is the author of Porn in America (Huntington House), which can be purchased through the American Family Association. He is a licensed real-estate mortgage loan sales agent and can be contacted through his website.
