The Adult Freedom Foundation (AFF) has sent a letter to Senator Sam Brownback regarding the re-scheduling of the “Obscenity Prosecution and the Constitution” hearing for next Wednesday in Washington. The original hearing was scheduled for Feb. 16.
“The history of this is that when they had originally scheduled this hearing, we sent a letter on behalf of AFF to Senator Brownback, and first of all we asked if we could supply experts on the issue,” Paul Cambria, general counsel for AFF, told AVN.com Thursday. “We were told we were too late, and they had already selected the experts. Then we were told who they were, and each of them had a history of basically being against adult material. They had a history of having a clear bias against adult entertainment.”
Now that the new date for the hearing has been set, the AFF is once again asking for the opportunity to present witnesses so the testimony can be objective.
“As opposed to Brownback rounding up the usual suspects to support his anti-adult material or adult entertainment stance,” Cambria added.
“As soon as we heard this was back on, we fired this letter up, and we want to widely publicize it because we’re hoping this will cause them to at least invite other experts other than the house crew.”
The letter follows:
March 9, 2005
Sen. Samuel Brownback
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C.
Sen. Brownback:
The rescheduling of the “Obscenity Prosecution and the Constitution” hearing to March 16th provides a renewed opportunity for the Adult Freedom Foundation to work with you in supplying expert witnesses on the new date.
At the last scheduled hearing when AFF and other First Amendment groups offered to present experts with insight into the Adult Entertainment industry, we were told the witnesses had already been selected and no other witnesses would be allowed to testify in person.
Now, with the new hearing date, AFF respectfully requests you allow us to provide witnesses who will testify on First Amendment issues of vital interest to the Adult Entertainment Industry.
Last month, AFF complained that witnesses scheduled for the Feb. 16th hearing were either former prosecutors or individuals who have expressed a bias toward adult material. Thus, the selection of those witnesses created the impression that a particular result is being sought by the committee rather than the objective evidence the American people are entitled to regarding such an important issue.
Please inform AFF of the procedure necessary to provide our witnesses to assure balanced testimony at the rescheduled hearing. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Paul Cambria
General Counsel
716 849 1333 X344
