Free Speech Coalition Press Release

NEW SENATE HEARING ON OBSCENITY:
ANOTHER ATTEMPT TO SANDBAG THE ADULT INDUSTRY?

CHATSWORTH, CA - Thanks to extraordinary efforts by legislative experts for the Free Speech Coalition, the adult industry trade association, another effort to load the Congressional Record with unrebutted claims about Americans' sexual speech rights has been uncovered.

The Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights will hold a hearing on Wednesday, February 16, 2005, at 2:30 p.m. in Room 226 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building on "Obscenity Prosecution of the First Amendment." Sen. Sam Brownback will preside.

Once again, the adult entertainment industry – the clear target of the hearing – was neither invited nor notified of the hearing, and attempts to provide witnesses friendly to the adult industry were rebuffed by subcommittee officials.

The subcommittee will hear invited constitutional experts address the implications of the decision in US v. Extreme Associates from the Western District of Pennsylvania. The decision, announced on January 21, was a victory for free speech rights, but according to Sens. Brownback and Orrin Hatch, in their Washington Times Op-Ed column of February 10th, it was “a Frankenstein’s monster of judicial activism.”

“These two veteran senators deliver sermons about 'judicial activism'," wrote Adult Video News Senior Editor Mark Kernes in his letter of comment on the Times column, “because they can’t argue the legal facts that led US District Court Judge Gary Lancaster to a complete and reasonable assessment of the law.” Free Speech Coalition has submitted objective and professional written testimony from prominent, knowledgeable and seasoned First Amendment attorneys to be included in the subcommittee's record, in order that the US Senate be made aware of all sides of this very important issue.