THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 30, 1994 TAG: 9411300426
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
The Supreme Court upheld a federal ban on distributing child pornography Tuesday, saying the law applies only to people who know that the material features a sexual performance by someone under age 18.
Congress did a less than artful - but constitutional - job of writing the law, the court ruled 7-2 as it reinstated a California man's conviction for selling films made by former porn queen Traci Lords when she was 15.
The law had been challenged as one that punished even defendants who did not know the content of the material they distributed.
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for the court that such an interpretation would create absurd results, making criminals of druggists who hand over an uninspected roll of developed film or Federal Express couriers who deliver a box labeled ``film.''
Instead, the court interpreted the law to require proof that defendants knew the books or films they distributed were child pornography.
Justice Antonin Scalia dissented, saying the decision put ``in place a relatively toothless child-pornography law that Congress did not enact.''
Like those convicted of statutory rape, people who knowingly deal in pornography should be held liable even if they did not know the performer was underage, Scalia said.
John McMickle of the National Law Center for Children and Families agreed, saying Tuesday's ruling creates a heavy new burden for prosecutors.
But Pat Trueman of the American Family Association called the decision a ``substantial victory'' because it removes any doubt about the validity of the child pornography law.
The decision reinstated the conviction of a Los Angeles porn shop owner, Rubin Gottesman, for distributing sexually explicit Traci Lords videotapes.
Gottesman, owner of X-Citement Video, was convicted of selling more than 100 Lords tapes to an undercover policeman in 1986.
Rehnquist's opinion was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. Justice Clarence Thomas joined Scalia's dissenting opinion.
KEYWORDS: U.S. SUPREME COURT PORNOGRAPHY
by CNB