Dating back to the days of Reagan, Meese, and even Anthony Comstock, the United States government has been the dam that has held back the flow of moral depravity from porn profiteers. Are judges ruining everything?
AVN.com writes:
CINCINNATI – The United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled today in the case of Connection Distributing Co. et. al. v. Keisler that the federal 2257 record-keeping statute is unconstitutional and overbroad.
"This is huge, huge news for the entire industry," attorney J. Michael Murray told AVN. "It means that the statute has been declared unconstitutional in its entirety, at least in the 6th Circuit. This is the result we’ve all been aiming for; it’s a monumental victory. We’ve been fighting this battle for twelve long years, and this is the third time I argued the case on the 6th Circuit. Finally, we got a court to agree with us."
AVN.com writes:
PHOENIX – Late this afternoon, and over strenuous objections from prosecutor Ken Whitted, Judge Roslyn O. Silver dismissed all charges against Ken Graham, co-owner of Five Star Video LC and Five Star Video Outlet LC.
Judge Silver noted that the government had presented only one witness and one document that directly tied Graham to the website www.fivestardvd.com, from which FBI agent Tod Price had ordered the four DVDs originally charged as obscene. She further noting that that witness, former Five Star employee James Puckett, had testified that Graham, who lives in Las Vegas, was only on the Five Star premises in Tempe, AZ sporadically – "He’d be there for a week, gone for a week," Puckett said – and that Graham had only discussed shipping procedures generally with Puckett. Therefore, the judge ruled, the government had failed to show that Graham had the scienter – knowledge of the character and content of the charged videos – necessary to be found guilty of the charges of transporting obscene materials.
What adjudicator will stop the madness?