Constitutional Law

High Court Urged To Hear Case Over Animal Cruelty Law

The U.S. solicitor general is urging the Supreme Court to review a 2008 federal appeals court decision that invalidated a federal law banning videos depicting animal cruelty. The New York Times reports that the Federal Depiction of Animal Cruelty Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton, was struck down in July by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as an unconstitutional violation of free speech. The law was enacted, in part, to outlaw the production of “crush videos,” which feature perverse acts of animal cruelty.

The 3rd Circuit case involves Robert J. Stevens who was found guilty of violating the act for selling videos of dogfights. The Human Society of the United States filed a friend-of-the-court brief in 3rd Circuit in favor of the animal cruelty law and has filed numerous lawsuits against the distribution of an array of videos showing animal cruelty. Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of HSUS, has said creators of animal cruelty videos do not have “a First Amendment right to peddle animal cruelty in the United States. Congress is constitutionally empowered to stop this kind of illicit interstate trade.” But the Times notes that at least one constitutional law professor, the University of California’s Eugene Volokh, who believes that the Supreme Court, if it takes the case, is likely to conclude that the federal law runs afoul of the First Amendment.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on January 06, 2009 (boomark / email).