A federal appeals court has ruled today that the 2257 record keeping laws that have beleagured the adult industry for years now are in direct violation of First Amendment rights, specifically in regard to the definition of “sexually explicit conduct”. As you know, this language has been spookily … nay, ridiculously vague in keeping porn makers and the wide variety of so-called “secondary producers” on their toes; when you never categorically know what you’re doing is against the law, it becomes just another scare tactic to keep porn peeps afraid that they’re doing something wrong.
As we’ve explained, 2257 was a piece of law that was added to the Adam Walsh Child Obscenity Act of 1988. Ostensibly “for the children”, it put a good number of law abiding porn businesses out of business, did nothing to protect any children, and made it seem as though anything could be “sexually explicit conduct”. Let’s just hope that if push comes to shove after this and it’s taken up on review, our *cough* open-minded Supreme Court jutsices care more about the First Amendment than using strongarm tactics to intimidate law-abiding porn makers—and that someone reminds them that last time we checked, it’s still legal to make porn here in the good old US of A.
· 6th Circuit 2257 Ruling: 2257 Unconstitutional (xbiz.com, article + .pdf, thanks Julie)
· See also: Free Speech Coalition’s 2257 Page (freespeechcoalition.com)
