NEW YORK, NY – The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF) and fetish photographer Barbara Nitke have continued their longstanding fight against obscenity laws by filing an amicus brief in the ongoing Extreme Associates case.In January, U.S. District Court Judge Gary Lancaster dismissed an obscenity indictment against adult filmmakers Rob Black and Lizzy Borden. In the process, Judge Lancaster ruled obscenity as unconstitutional as applied to the defendants. The decision set off cries of “activist judge” from the religious right, and promoted U. S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan to appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
“The government cannot pick and choose which subjects of speech it wants to regulate and limit. Under this argument, the government should not be allowed to restrict SM pornography more strictly than vanilla pornography,” read a statement from the NCSF. “Obscenity is judged by ‘local community standards’ which cannot be applied on the internet because that means the most restrictive community in the U.S. could impose its view of obscenity on the entire internet.”
The amicus brief can be read in full on the NCSF website.
The NCSF and photographer Nitke are no strangers to obscenity law challenges. The organization is fighting its own challenge over portions of the Communications Decency Act on the grounds that obscenity laws cannot be constitutionally applied to the internet. For more information about that challenge, please visit the NCSF website.
