Meese Targets Child Porn, Cable Shows

Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III said Wednesday that he will propose legislation during the next Congress to restrict obscene cable television programming, outlaw “dial-a-porn” telephone messages and strengthen laws against child pornography.

Declaring that “there are few, if any, safe havens” from the “explosion of obscenity throughout our nation,” Meese announced the legislation as part of an offensive against the production and trafficking of illegal pornography in an estimated $8-billion-a-year industry.

The plan closely follows the recommendations of Meese’s controversial Commission on Pornography, which issued its findings in a nearly 2,000-page report last July that was widely praised by conservative organizations and severely criticized by civil rights groups. The commission, contending that a link exists between sexually violent materials and “antisocial acts of sexual violence,” called for a nationwide crackdown on pornography.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which was highly critical of the report, immediately denounced the legislative package made public Wednesday. Barry Lynn, legislative counsel for the ACLU, said the program “may very well erode constitutional values of privacy and free expression” and is designed to “intimidate” publishers and distributors of sexually oriented material.

The package, which Meese said would not require additional federal funding, calls for the creation of a resource center and a task force of government attorneys to prosecute obscenity cases more aggressively. Included are provisions forbidding the employment of people under the age of 21 in “sexually explicit visual depictions.”

Requires Proof of Age

These proposals would require that producers, retailers and distributors maintain records of consent and proof of age of such performers. In addition, a provision would require people convicted in obscenity cases to forfeit whatever they earned from their crimes and surrender the money to the states in which the acts were committed.

Lynn called a requirement that performers in sexually explicit videos or other visual depictions be over 21 a “paternalistic abridgement of the civil liberties of persons who are fully adult in virtually all other legal senses.”

In addition, he said, the forfeiture provision will be a “dangerous and Draconian instrument in the hands of censorship-minded prosecutors who could seize all the assets of businesses who have any commerce in so-called ‘obscene’ material.”

The legislative package also would fill a “gap” in current pornography law by specifically dealing with the transmission of obscenity over telephone lines, Meese said. Current law addresses only obscene materials on paper, not electronic transmissions.

Wants More Expertise

Meese, pledging to “enhance” the efforts of U.S. attorneys’ offices across the country in cracking down on trafficking of pornography, mandated that one attorney in each of the 93 offices nationwide “develop an expertise” in obscenity prosecution.

Arguing that the spread of pornography “is the work of organized criminal enterprises that have taken over the large-scale production and distribution of obscenity,” Meese ordered the Justice Department’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Strike Forces to collaborate with the proposed new task force of government attorneys in fighting “criminal enterprises involved in obscenity production and distribution.”

Acknowledges Court Limits

The attorney general said that the plan is not targeted against materials which “have been recognized by the courts to be within the bounds of protected speech.”

Lynn accused Meese of acting under the “intense” pressure of anti-pornography groups, a number of which are planning demonstrations in Washington during the coming weeks.

Jerry Kirk, president of the American Coalition against Pornography, said he is “delighted” with the Meese proposals.