Legal News

Supremes Uphold Child-Pornography Law

By Dan Slater

“Child pornography harms and debases the most defenseless of our citizens,” Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the Supreme Court in an opinion issued in U.S. v. Williams. “Both the state and federal governments have sought to suppress it for many years, only to find it proliferating through the new medium of the Internet.”

Today, a 7-2 majority voted to uphold a 2003 federal law aimed at child pornography, concluding that Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit was wrong to find the law unconstitutionally vague, and rejecting the argument that the statute was so broadly written that it could make it a crime to share or even describe depictions of children in explicit sexual situations, even if the depictions are inaccurate, the children do not really exist and the intention is innocent. Here’s a report from the NYT. Click here for further coverage from Scotusblog, at which you’ll find a link to the opinion.

The immediate effect of the ruling is to reinstate the conviction of Michael Williams, a Florida resident who was caught in a federal undercover operation in April 2004 and found guilty later of “pandering” child pornography, a charge — according to the NYT — that’s defined in part as promoting or distributing real or “purported” material in a way that reflects the belief — or is intended to persuade another — that the material is indeed child pornography.

The 11th Circuit found that the statute was overly broad and violated the First Amendment, reasoning that offering a copy of “Snow White” on false claims that it depicts minors engaging in sex could be construed as criminal behavior.

But Justice Scalia — joined by Roberts, Stevens, Kennedy, Thomas, Breyer and Alito, dismissed that argument — writing that it relies on far-fetched hypothetical situations. In 2002, the court struck down a law that made it a crime to create, distribute or possess “virtual” child pornography that uses computer-generated images or young-looking adults rather than real children. But here Justice Scalia wrote that the Court has held that the government can criminalize the mere possession of actual child pornography, as distinct from mere possession of pornography involving adults.

Scalia said it made no difference whether the pornography was offered for sale or was promoted as being free. Consider a drug case, he suggested: “It would be an odd constitutional principle that permitted the government to prohibit offers to sell illegal drugs, but not offers to give them away for free.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 19, 2008 (boomark / email).