ACLU Blasts Porn Panel’s ‘Dirty Pictures Crusade’

The ACLU, releasing a lengthy response to a report expected soon from the federal pornography commission, blasted the panel today for launching a “national crusade against dirty pictures” that misses the boat.

“Rather than clarifying the issues for Americans, this body has largely polluted the debate over sexually explicit materials and censorship,” the 200-page report said.

Of particular concern were panel recommendations that Congress and state legislatures amend obscenity laws to allow forfeiture of the proceeds of pornography--a proposal the ACLU warned could lead to prosecutors taking over the proceeds of a neighborhood grocery store that carries obscene material.

In releasing its study, the civil liberties group preempted the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography, the controversial panel charged with investigating the impact of the $8-billion pornography industry on American life.

A majority of the 11 commission members--psychiatrists, evangelists and legal experts headed by anti-porn prosecutor Henry Hudson of Virginia--have endorsed the view that pornography sparks sexual violence. Its 2,000-page report is expected to be released around July 3.

Critics, including the ACLU, have argued that research proves no such link between pornography and crime, and that the panel is making smut a scapegoat while ignoring complex social ills.

“The gaps in science,” the ACLU study said, “were filled in by a legion of the commissioners’ own preconceptions and intuition.”

The ACLU said another proposal to change state obscenity laws to make a second offense a felony “is to impose a grossly disproportionate penalty” for the offense.