CINCINNATI, Ohio—Prominent free speech defender H. Louis Sirkin is a legend in the adult industry, one of less than a dozen attorneys who those busted for obscenity or other sexual speech-related charges can call who will fully understand what they will be facing at the hands of "law enforcement"—and now, the Cincinnati Bar Foundation has presented to him the 2019 John L. Muething Lifetime Achievement in Law award.
According to the Bar Foundation's website, "The Lifetime Achievement in Law Award is presented for 50 years of exemplary service as a lawyer. Members 75 and older are also eligible. Through his or her distinguished career, the honoree reflects the highest principles and traditions of the legal profession"—and that description fits Sirkin to a "T."
Even before AVN was founded, Sirkin was serving the adult community, and has represented such familiar names as Larry Flynt, Max Hardcore, Rob Black and dozens of other adult producers, directors and retailers, and more recently, has represented the Erotic Service Providers Legal Education Research Project in its attempt to overturn California's anti-prostitution laws. Sirkin was also one of Free Speech Coalition's attorneys in its first challenge, in Colorado, to the federal record-keeping and labeling law, 18 U.S.C. §2257.
Perhaps Sirkin's most important victory was his argument before the U.S. Supreme Court in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, which had the effect of striking down laws which criminalized sexually explicit material featuring young-looking performers and cartoons with "underage" characters in sexual situations.
Sirkin's First Amendment litigation has not been limited to the adult industry. In 1990, the Hamilton County (OH) prosecutor Simon Leis charged Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center and its director Dennis Barrie with obscenity for having hosted a retrospective of the photography of Robert Mapplethorpe, which included several sexually explicit images, many of them involving gay subjects. Sirkin successfully represented the Center and Barrie in court, and walked away with a stunning victory in what is believed to have been the first criminal trial of an art museum over one of its exhibits.
More recently, Sirkin was also part of the team representing Vivid Entertainment Group and two adult performers, Kayden Kross and Logan Pierce, in their lawsuit against California's Measure B, which would have required all adult producers to obtain "health permits" from LA County before shooting, and to use condoms, latex gloves, goggles, dental dams and face shields during their performances. Though the measure was not defeated, it is not currently being enforced.
Beyond that, Sirkin has been involved in dozens of federal and state obscenity cases, most prominently as co-counsel with Paul Cambria and Allan Gelbard defending John Stagliano and Evil Angel against federal obscenity charges in the District of Columbia in 2010—the first federal obscenity case the Department of Justice had lost in more than 30 years.
Sirkin and his law partner Jennifer Kinsley also represented Max Hardcore in a federal obscenity trial in Tampa, Florida which lasted for more than a week, but ended in Hardcore's conviction. He also handled the guilty pleas of Rob Black and Lizzie Borden in Pennsylvania in what's been called the longest-running federal obscenity case ever.
Other obscenity cases in which Sirkin emerged triumphant were the case against JM Productions and its owner Jeff Steward, in which the government dropped the charges; the Love Boutique and Adult Plaza in Indiana; the Jennifer Dute case in Ohio, where the retailer pled to a lesser charge after having served seven months of a one-year sentence (that was eventually overturned) for selling obscene material; and others too numerous to mention.
Another vitally important case in which Sirkin was lead counsel was the 2008 case of Reliable Consultants, Inc. v. Earle, the victory for which in both the trial court and before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals meant that "obscene device" laws in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi were declared unconstitutional.
So is it about time Sirkin was honored for a lifetime achievement in the service of civil liberties litigation? You betcha!
Pictured: Sirkin and client Maxine Doogan leaving the San Francisco Federal Courthouse
