CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- The new nominee for U.S. Attorney General has said that he would \u201cvigorously\u201d enforce obscenity laws, a move which one expert described as a step forward in fighting pornography and violence against women.<\/p>\nSen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), during his first confirmation hearing last week to become the next Attorney General, was questioned by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) about federal obscenity laws.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hatch mentioned the state of Utah passing a resolution declaring pornography to be a \u201cpublic health problem\u201d and asked Sessions if \u201cfederal laws prohibiting adult obscenity should be vigorously enhanced?\u201d<\/p>\n
Sessions answered that \u201cthose laws are clear, and they are being prosecuted today, and should continue to be effectively and vigorously prosecuted in the cases that are appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hatch followed up by asking if Sessions supported the special unit at the Department of Justice to prosecute obscenity crimes, which had been closed during President Obama\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure I knew that\u201d the special unit had been discontinued, Sessions answered, \u201cbut it was a part of the DOJ for a long time and I would consider that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pornography itself is not a legally defined term. Instead, federal law evaluates whether something is \u201cobscene.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is determined by whether \u201ca judge and\/or a jury\u201d finds that \u201cthe average person, applying contemporary community standards\u201d would deem that it \u201cappeals to the prurient interest,\u201d that it \u201cdepicts or describes in a patently offensive way, as measured by contemporary community standards, \u2018hardcore\u2019 sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable law,\u201d and that it \u201ctaken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political and scientific value.\u201d<\/p>\n
Federal obscenity laws bar the sale, possession, and distribution of materials like child pornography and hardcore adult pornography, among other things. A 1973 Supreme Court case Miller v. California established the legal test for whether a \u201cwork\u201d is obscene, in which case, it is not protected by the First Amendment as free speech.<\/p>\n
Mary G. Leary, a law professor at the Catholic University of America\u2019s Columbus School of Law, told CNA that these obscenity laws are \u201cvery important\u201d to enforce now because pornography has increased both in the amount of content and in violence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDue to limited resources and the explosion of violence against children,\u201d child pornography crimes are a large focus of prosecutors but this leaves other forms of pornography free to \u201cmetastasize,\u201d Leary said, \u201cboth quantitatively and qualitatively.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thus, the violence \u2013 especially toward women \u2013 has increased in pornography, she said, and \u201cthe effect this exposure to very obscene and disturbing imagery [has] can be significant. \u00a0Exploitation is a continuum.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is another reason why the DOJ special task force should be brought back, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would allow that unit to focus on obscene glorifications of sexual violence against women and marginalized members of our community and allow the very effective Child Exploitation component of CEOS at DOJ to continue their focus on child abuse images.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The group Morality in Media, now the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, had put the Department of Justice on its 2013, 2014 and 2015 \u201cDirty Dozen\u201d lists of the \u201ctop contributors to sexual exploitation\u201d for closing the special task force and for not prosecuting obscenity crimes enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch in January of 2016, the center noted that \u201cto our knowledge, not one new obscenity case has been initiated against commercial distributors of hardcore, adult pornography in the last seven years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYet, federal law prohibits distribution of obscene adult pornography on the Internet, on cable\/satellite TV, on hotel\/motel TV, in retail shops through the mail, and by common carrier,\u201d they continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They pointed to \u201cthemes of incest, racism, sexism, and exploitation\u201d found in content from Verizon and InterContinental Hotels Group, including an \u201cemphasis on teen and young girls.\u201d<\/p>\n
NSCE concluded by asking the Department of Justice to prosecute obscenity crimes more seriously:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn an age when our society is struggling to deal with serious child and adult sexual exploitation, racially-motivated sexual violence, and epidemic of sexual assault on college and university campuses, thousands of young women and girls are being trafficked for purposes of prostitution, Department of Justice employees must be admonished to not engage in purchase of sex from prostituting persons, and child sexual abuse is 167 times more common than autism in children, adult, hardcore pornography only serves to exacerbate deeply entrenched social ills that have devastating impacts at the individual and societal level. It is long past time for the producers and distributors of this sexually toxic material to face justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Washington D.C., Jan 16, 2017 \/ 05:17 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- The new nominee for U.S. Attorney General has said that he would “vigorously” enforce obscenity laws, a move which one expert described as a step forward in fighting pornography and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\n
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