Aug 8, 2005

obscenity does not exist

Texas Woman Battling Arrest for Selling Porn
Lori Hemphill was simply working her shift at the Log Cabin under I-20 and I-820 in the Kennedale community of Fort Worth, Texas, when she was placed under arrest by the undercover cop to whom she’d just sold an adult video.
The charge? “Promoting obscenity.” The agenda? A campaign by Kennedale Mayor Jim Norwood — a pastor — to abolish adult stores in the area. This was on March 10, and since then, Hemphill has been placed on probation, denied any other sort of work, forced to put off her plans to attend nursing school, enrolled in state-supported psychiatric and financial assistance programs and even reduced to begging for food.
Meanwhile, the Log Cabin and the other adult stores in the area remain thriving.

Another episode in the Nanny State Police series. Private transactions between consenting adults within the borders of a single state are no business of that state or the federal government. Porn is legal. Selling it or buying it can therefore not be illegal. This mayor and any police involved should be immediately fired and barred from ever holding public office again. The Nanny State must be brought to its knees.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow you sure do not know a lot about obscenity law do you. I quote you from the current Supreme Court Ruling on the Subject

Miller v. California , 413 U.S. 15 (1973) (The basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be: (a) whether "the average person, applying contemporary community standards" would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, Roth, supra, at 489, (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law, and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. If a state obscenity law is thus limited, First Amendment values are adequately protected by ultimate independent appellate review of constitutional claims when necessary. The jury may measure the essentially factual issues of prurient appeal and patent offensiveness by the standard that prevails in the forum community, and need not employ a "national standard").

Note the use of community standards. So in theory porn is not legal. It is up to each individual community. The obscenity laws of state might go unenforced for decades but if a local sheriff etc... decides to enforce them dems da breaks. I am not saying this is right I am just noting that you assumption that porn is legal is a little off the mark. We all love to assume that pron is legal to all consenting adults but the reality of the matter is that it depends on where you reside.

Wow, this is kind of fun, are there any other misconceptions of the law or politics you have? I would love to clear them up for you.

Matthew DesOrmeaux said...

I understand the legal definition of obscenity and how it is interpreted in cases. I just happen to think it's bullshit. If anything is necessarily defined by "evolving standards of decency", then it is completely relative and therefore unfit for legal injunction in my opinion. I think things that are illegal should have to be precisely defined. But then again, I don't think most things should be illegal; basically just murder, rape, theft, and other crimes that directly harm another individual or his property.

Anonymous said...

Ms Hemphill felt compelled to kill herslef in 10/07.

This pretty much sums up why.