Federal law on animal cruelty videos struck down


	Federal law on animal cruelty videos struck down

Kelika

7-19-2008 2:51 PM

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Kelika says:

"Overturning a Virginia man's 2005 conviction, a U.S. appeals court says that depictions of dogfighting and other acts are protected by the 1st Amendment."

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7-19-2008 6:48 PM

Socratoad

Sickening bastards

A nation shall be judged by how well it protects ALL sentient beings.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/2e947f2e-3f77-447d-8d34-a1541d67ff45/D09BE766-3202-43F6-B4E1-8428B5837562/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cruelty19-2008jul19,0,5348853.story" href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cruelty19-2008jul19,0,5348853.story" style="font-size: 11px;">www.latimes.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cruelty19-2008jul19,0,5348853.story"><DIV>
The ruling overturns a Virginia man's 2005 conviction, the nation's first under the law. Robert J. Stevens of Pittsville, Va., advertised and sold two videos of pit bulls fighting each other and a third showing the pit bulls attacking hogs and wild boars.</DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cruelty19-2008jul19,0,5348853.story"><DIV>In Friday's decision, the appeals court in Philadelphia, by a 10-3 vote, said it was not prepared to "recognize a new category of speech that is unprotected by the 1st Amendment." </DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cruelty19-2008jul19,0,5348853.story"><DIV>The law also was designed to stop so-called crush videos. According to a congressional report cited by the court, these are "depictions of women inflicting torture [on animals] with their bare feet or while wearing high-heeled shoes." </DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cruelty19-2008jul19,0,5348853.story"><DIV>The appeals court disagreed. "Preventing cruelty to animals, although an exceedingly worthy goal, simply does not implicate interests of the same magnitude as protecting children from physical and psychological harm," wrote Judge Brooks Smith of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.</DIV></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/D09BE766-3202-43F6-B4E1-8428B5837562/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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