Posted on 10/06/2009 7:22:01 PM PDT by Steelfish
Court Hears Free-Speech Case on Dogfight Videos
ADAM LIPTAK
Published: October 6, 2009
WASHINGTON — Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wanted to know if Congress could ban a “Human Sacrifice Channel” on cable television.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg asked about videos of cockfighting.
“What about hunting with a bow and arrow out of season?” Justice John Paul Stevens asked.
“What if I am an aficionado of bullfights,” Justice Antonin Scalia wondered, “and I think, contrary to the animal cruelty people, they ennoble both beast and man?”
And Justice Stephen G. Breyer asked about “stuffing geese for pâté de foie gras.”
The rapid-fire inquiries came in an exceptionally lively Supreme Court argument on Tuesday in the most important free speech case this term.
The case concerns the constitutionality of a 1999 federal law that bans commercial trafficking in “depictions of animal cruelty.” The number and variety of questions suggested that most of the justices thought the law was written too broadly and thus ran afoul of the First Amendment.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Worse than Orchids?
This is the kind of crap their hearing instead of if a sitting President is eligible to be President. Anymore I am just watching madness everyday.
If all is as stated, and dummied up depictions would fall afoul of the law, then it's certainly overbroad. Direct parallel here to virtual underage porn.
- Traveler
What about cat-fights?
They’ve been self-censoring the Warner Brothers bunch for years. I can remember exactly where Yosemite Sam, for example, used to get blown up mid-cartoon.
And I think Speedy Gonzales has gone the way of the Frito Bandito.
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