SALT LAKE CITY, Utah—As soon as you heard that the Utah House and Senate, at the behest of Morality in Media the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, had passed a joint resolution condemning sexually explicit content (aka porn) as a "public health crisis," you knew what was next, right? Well, sure enough, Sen. Scott Weiler (R-Mormon) announced that he's going to introduce a "handful of bills" when the legislature convenes next year aimed at keeping as many Utahans as possible from seeing people fucking, or even just getting naked.
According to the Associated Press, Weiler "plans to introduce at least three new proposals next session including one requiring Internet service providers to add filters so everyone in Utah has to opt-in to view pornography."
Weiler apparently got his idea from hearing that Prime Minister David Cameron will be trying to get that same sort of law passed in the United Kingdom—an effort that just got a boost from 90-year-old Queen Elizabeth II, who recommended the action during her annual "Queen's Speech."
There's just one problem: While England doesn't have a constitution formally protecting the concept of "free speech," the U.S. does. It's called the First Amendment, and it says, "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech," a dictum that applies to the states as well, thanks to the Fourteenth Amendment. And since the Supreme Court has ruled that non-obscene sexual expression is fully protected by the First Amendment, any law Utah would pass that required people to "opt in" in order to see adult content on their computers, televisions, tablets, smartphones and other devices would be summarily struck down.
"I really don't expect that the state of Utah is going to be able to exercise that kind of control over an interstate item such as the Internet," said prominent Utah First Amendment attorney Andrew McCullough. "I don't think they have the jurisdiction to."
But if there's one thing would-be censors are pretty good at, it's coming up with new ways to prevent regular citizens from accessing the content they want to see, so AVN will be keeping an eye on Scott Weiler and his fellow legislators—and Morality in Media National Center on Sexual Exploitation—to see what they'll try next.
