By LifeSiteNews.com Staff
PHILADELPHIA, December 9, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit ruled today to uphold federal obscenity laws. The ruling came in the federal government’s appeal of the dismissal of an indictment against Extreme Associates, an enterprise that produces extremely hardcore pornography, including scenes of violence, urination, and simulated rape.
Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) President Alan Sears, who served as executive director of the U.S. Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography under President Ronald Reagan, hailed today’s ruling.“The First Amendment was never intended to protect obscene materials that further violent crimes against women and children,” said Sears, a former federal prosecutor who was director of the U.S. Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography in the 1980s.
“If this case would have been lost, it could have brought federal prosecution of hardcore obscenity to a halt in that circuit. The loss is a ‘lump of coal’ in the stocking of those like the ACLU who argue that even such degradation as the type produced by Extreme Associates—and even child pornography—is ‘protected’ by our Constitution,” said Sears.
The appeals court reversed a district court decision that had concluded federal obscenity laws violate the privacy rights of pornographers based on its reading of Lawrence v. Texas. In today’s opinion, the appellate court wrote, “We are satisfied that the Supreme Court has decided that the federal statutes regulating the distribution of obscenity do not violate any constitutional right to privacy.” (see the full text of today’s opinion:Âwww.telladf.org/UserDocs/USvEAopinion.pdfÂ
Sears said he believes it is unlikely that the U.S. Supreme Court will accept the case if it is appealed.“Obscenity law has been well settled for over 30 years,” he said.
ADF funded a friend-of-the-court brief at the 3rd Circuit in the case, United States of America v. Extreme Associates. The parties to the brief were ADF, Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, and Sears individually as the former head of the U.S. Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography. (The amicus brief can be read at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/USvEAamicus.pdf )