Carlsbad Bans Porn From Newsrack Sales

A ban on newsrack sales of “obscene” material was unanimously approved without debate Tuesday by the Carlsbad City Council.

Two weeks ago, when the prohibition on vending sales of adult material was first discussed, some council members were concerned that the move could violate First Amendment freedoms.

However, City Atty. Vincent Biondo Jr. told the council Tuesday night that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld cities’ authority to regulate the public display of sexually explicit material.

The move comes despite the fact that neither council members nor business leaders claim there is a smut problem in Carlsbad.

But Mayor Bud Lewis and City Councilman Eric Larson supported a city ordinance that would forbid sexually explicit material from being sold in outdoor newspaper racks.

The effort quickly became mired, however, in a dispute over what is obscene and whether such a ban would invite a legal attack on constitutional grounds.

The issue arose quite undramatically as the City Council recently approved an ordinance to regulate the placement of newsracks on public sidewalks. A one-sentence provision sought to make it illegal to put “any publication or material in newsracks which exposes to public view any pictorial matter that is obscene.”

Sierra Club activist Joan Jackson, who attended that council meeting for a different issue, said her ears suddenly perked up during the discussion.

“I was just astonished, so I went up to object. I explained that I got up because I hold my First Amendment rights very dear,” Jackson recalled. “It was craziness.”

That night, before passing the bulk of the ordinance, the council removed the part about obscene material until Biondo could review it. What upsets the two councilmen is visions of newsstands offering publications with pictures of nudes or sexual activity.

“We’re talking about machines that anybody would have access to,” Larson said.

Yet nobody, not even Larson or Lewis, suggests that the community, which fosters the identity of a quaint seaside village, has the slightest problem with sales of sexually oriented publications on public right-of-way.

Hope Wrisley, co-chair of the Carlsbad Village Merchants Assn., said, “I’ve not seen any evidence of pornography on newsstands.” And even if there were, she asked, “How do you determine what’s pornography and what’s obscene?”

That’s the crux of the matter, and it initially split the council.

Two weeks ago, Councilman Mark Pettine, a deputy district attorney for San Diego County, said the council would have been misguided in trying to ban adult material under such a general definition as “obscene.”

But when the amendment was returned by the city attorney’s office Tuesday night, council members were satisfied that changes had been made to satisfy the nation’s highest court should there be a legal challenge.

“I get real leery when you try to legislate the First Amendment,” Pettine said.