SANTA ANA : Council to Vote on Porn-Rack Blinders
Pornographic material in newspaper racks may soon be partially concealed with blinders in Santa Ana, where the City Council is considering an ordinance making the display of uncovered publications a misdemeanor offense punishable by fine or jail.
“We’re trying to help the city lose a bad image,” said Tamara A. Trodden, deputy city attorney. “We’re trying to clean up the city and say we don’t want nudie magazines showing.”
Following the steps of cities such as Newport Beach, which have chosen to cover adult publications rather than ban them, the Santa Ana proposal requires distributors to hide the lower two-thirds of their publications that usually feature pictures of nude women. The council will vote on the measure Monday night. Distributors and publishers violating the law could be fined up to $1,000 and jailed for six months.
The city cannot ban the publications outright, Trodden said, because complete censorship would open Santa Ana to legal fights with distributors.
However, California allows cities and counties to adopt ordinances that require blinders to be placed over the publications, Trodden said.
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