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SCOTUS affirms unconstitutionality of federal "animal porn" prohibition in Stevens

By Douglas A. Berman

In the only opinion handed down this morning, the Supreme Court today in United States v. Stevens, No. 08-769 (available here), affirmed the Third Circuit's judgment that 18 U.S.C. § 48, which criminalizes certain depictions of animal cruelty, is unconstitutional.  The vote was 8-1, with Chief Justice Roberts writing the opinion for the Court and with Justice Alito writing a lengthy dissent. The opinions appear to engage significantly with the Supreme Court's 30-year-old ruling in Ferber that child porn is not subject to First Amendment protections, though I will need some time to digest the opinion before seeing if there is anything in Stevens that could really impact day-to-day federal criminal justice policy or practice.

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on April 20, 2010 (boomark / email).