June 11, 2006 | Sex & Society

Yet another way to crush porn

Pornography doesn't have many friends on Capitol Hill. The president loathes it, after all, and Congress doesn't dare endorse it. Federal courts, however, continue to hold up Americans' right to enjoy it. A Congressman from Utah knows that, and he's introduced a bill to strip those courts of their power to protect porn.

Utah Representative Chris Cannon introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives last week HR 5528, a.k.a. the Pornography Jurisdiction Act, which according to YNOT.com would ban federal courts from having the jurisdiction to hear or decide challenges to state laws related to sexually explicit material.

“Federal courts have been creating a dangerous climate for our children by overturning important decisions by state courts to restrict pornography consumption and distribution within their borders," Cannon said. "[This bill] simply lets states decide for themselves how they tackle this problem.”

Motivating Cannon is a federal challenge to his state's Utah Child Protection Registry, which was created to establish a "no e-mail list" designed to supposedly shield children from receiving sexually explicit materials online.

Critics of the Pornography Jurisdiction Act worry that it would disturb the checks and balances that protect citizens' constitutional freedoms.

“The United States Supreme Court and the state courts set up long ago that there are limits to state’s rights in the federal system," said First Amendment attorney Reed Lee. "One of those limits is that on federal law issues, including what the United States constitution reads, the United States government, and particularly the judiciary, has the final word … and state judges shall be bound by oath to support that constitution as the supreme law of the land.”

It wouldn't be the first time a Congressman had introduced a patently Unconstitutional anti-porn bill -- particulary in the run-up to a federal election.

• Cannon aims to strip federal courts of obscenity jurisdiction [YNOT Masters]
• News analysis: The Pornography Jurisdiction Limitation Act [AVN]