Ohio- Attorneys for Larry Flynt's Hustler pornography empire are challenging Ohio's new sex-offender registration requirement for people convicted of pandering obscenity.
Ohio's version of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act went into effect earlier this year, requiring individuals convicted of sex offense-related crimes, such as selling hardcore pornographic material, to register as sex offenders for 15 years.
The manager of the Hustler store in downtown Cincinnati -- described by the Cincinnati Enquirer as being from northern Kentucky and the mother of two children who attend a Catholic school -- is suing the Ohio attorney general, claiming that the registration requirement is unconstitutional in that it violates her rights of free speech and privacy. Her attorney says although his client has not been convicted or charged with anything, she is "frightened."
Phil Burress, president of the Ohio-based Citizens for Community Values, says the woman's claim that she has no way of knowing what constitutes "obscene material" is not credible.
"In Ohio, pandering obscenity is a felony," Burress explains. "It's one of only five states where, if you sell an X-rated, hardcore videotape...you can be charged with a felony and spend a year in jail. [The store manager and her attorneys] need to understand that the obscenity laws are quite clear, even though they say they're not."
The Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. California that any depiction of actual or simulated sexual activity or full frontal nudity constitutes obscenity.
"The woman is the only person in this whole city of Cincinnati, apparently, who is selling something that she knows she could be prosecuted for selling," notes the family advocate. "So what she needs to do is to stop selling hardcore, sexually explicit pornography -- and then she won't have a problem."
Burress predicts Flynt's pornography empire will lose the lawsuit. "Let's put this into perspective: Is there anyone else who's afraid of being convicted for selling obscenity?" he asks. "No -- these are the only people in Cincinnati who know what they're selling...is prosecutable under Ohio law....[So] stop selling material where you could be prosecuted for selling obscenity. Get a job somewhere else."
The lawsuit notes that a planned expansion of the Cincinnati Hustler store has been put on hold because of the sex-offender registration requirement. Burress says that shows the real motivation for the lawsuit: Hustler is afraid that it will not be able to find anyone to work in its store if its employees are prosecuted for violating Ohio's obscenity law and have to register as sex offenders.
