Thought I'd share with the GFY crew, just got an E-mail from Lawrence Walters ~
Brad
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Dear Clients & Friends of FreeSpeechLaw.com
The U.S. Supreme Court just ruled that the Virtual Child Pornography law (?CPPA?) is unconstitutionally overbroad! Attached is the court?s decision. This is a victory for the Free Speech Coalition and for the First Amendment. The court ruled that the law is inconsistent with the requirements of Miller v. California, which requires that materials involving adults must appeal to the prurient interest before they can be criminalized. Moreover, the CPPA provided for severe punishment if just a single scene of a movie contained a graphic depiction of prohibited sexual activity. This is inconsistent with the First Amendment which requires that a work?s artistic merit be evaluated as a whole, and not dependent on the presence of a single scene. The Court noted that CPPA in not supported by the traditional reasons for outlawing child pornography. The CPPA prohibits speech that records no crime, and creates no victim by its production. The alleged harm, future criminal acts by pedophiles, does not necessarily flow from the speech. Thus, the court held that where speech is neither obscene nor the product of sexual abuse, it has First Amendment protection.
More information to follow upon further analysis of the decision.
Lawrence Walters
http://www.freespeechlaw.com
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