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US v. Williams

By Corey Rayburnyung

I've recovering from a nasty cold, but the USSC issuing an opinion in US v. Williams was enough to wake me from my Sudafed-induced daze. You might remember this was the case that Doug Berman said had definite sleeper potential. As it turns out, the case has a lot more to do with the law of solicitation in regards to the First Amendment than it does with child pornography law. Of course, you wouldn't know that reading some of the media coverage of the case. CNN, for example, offers the odd headline of "Child porn is not protected speech" to describe the ruling (as though that were in doubt). Basically, the holding is well-described in this post by Eugene Volokh at Volokh Conspiracy:Today's U.S. v. Williams opinion might seem like a child pornography case; but the key (though not unexpected) holding is that there is a First Amendment exception for solicitation of crime or offer to commit a crime, see Part II-B...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sex Crimes on May 19, 2008 (boomark / email).