WASHINGTON, May 19 /Christian Newswire/ -- "We have long held that obscene speech-sexually explicit material that violates fundamental notions of decency-is not protected by the First Amendment," begins the opinion handed down today by the Supreme Court in US v. Williams, a clear statement of law too often overlooked by our judiciary and law enforcement. In a 7-2 decision, the Court reversed the Eleventh Circuit opinion declaring the 2003 law unconstitutional and restored the much needed protections against the distribution of child pornography.
Concerned Women for America (CWA) applauds the decision by the Supreme Court to uphold a law that will protect families and punish those who traffic in child pornography.
Justice Scalia, who wrote the opinion of the Court, said, "Child pornography harms and debases the most defenseless of our citizens. Both the State and Federal Government have sought to suppress it for many years, only to find it proliferating though the new medium of the Internet."
"The Supreme Court got it exactly right," said Mario Diaz, CWA's Policy Director for Legal Issues. "Child pornography is a growing problem in our society and we must use every weapon at our disposal to fight against it. There is no violation of the First Amendment right to free speech here. After all, the material at issue is illegal child pornography. The mere possession of it is in violation of the law.
"It is clear the federal government has a compelling interest in protecting children, and this statute goes after individuals with a specific intent to pander the material. A law that protects children in such a significant way should not be struck down simply because there might be one person somewhere in Fantasyland that, given the right circumstances, might say it violates their free speech. That is nonsense and I'm glad the Justices saw through their mythical arguments."
Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America, said "Children who have been violated twice, by molestation and the recording of this crime, should not face the life-long fear of the pictures of their rape circulating for perverted men to gawk at. Child pornography is illegal and today the Supreme Court rightly upheld the law against distributing this illegal material."
Concerned Women for America is the nation's largest public policy women's organization.
