Law & Society Blog

This article on law.com focuses on the background of one of the new top priorities of the U.S. Attorney General’s office, which is the prosecution of “purveyors of obscene materials.”

With the rapid growth of Internet pornography, stamping out obscene material has become a major concern for the Bush administration’s powerful Christian conservative supporters. The Mississippi-based American Family Association and other Christian conservative groups have pressured the Justice Department to take action against pornography. The family association has sent weekly letters to U.S. attorneys around the country to pressure them to pursue the makers and distributors of pornography. “While there are crimes like drugs and public corruption in Miami, this is also a form of corruption and should be a priority,” said Anthony Verdugo, director of the Christian Family Coalition in Miami. “Pornography is a poison and it’s addictive. It’s not a victimless crime. Women are the victims.”

What a breathtaking waste of time, attention, and tax dollars! In the words of Stephen Bronis, chair of the white-collar crime division of the American Bar Association.

“Compared to terrorism, public corruption and narcotics, [pornography] is no worse than dropping gum on the sidewalk,” […] “With so many other problems in this area, this is absolutely ridiculous.”

A convenient side-effect of fighting obscenity is that is provides legal and political cover for increasing efforts to monitor, control, and ultimately censor internet traffic.

The Obscenity Prosecution Task Force will pull together prosecutors from sections covering organized crime and racketeering, asset forfeiture, money laundering, computer crime and intellectual property. They will be joined by prosecutors from the High-Tech Investigative Unit, which has computer and forensic experts. The focus will be on Internet crimes as well as on “peer-to-peer” distribution of pornography, according to the news release.

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