Prosecutors say they plan to prosecute the owners of two adult video stores on obscenity charges after the Louisiana Supreme Court refused to hear one of the owners’ challenge to the constitutionality of the state’s obscenity law.
Chester Cedars, an assistant district attorney, told The Advertiser that the Supreme Court’s ruling paves the way for his office to prosecute the owners of Le Video Store and The Video Place, which rent and sell porn videos in St. Martin Parish, near Lafayette.
The court’s ruling comes after Le Video owner Emmette Jacob Jr. sued the state, claiming Louisiana’s obscenity law was too broad and did not define which “community standards” would be used to determine what ought to be considered obscene. He argued that it wasn’t clear whether it meant standards from the parish, city or region.
A district judge had ruled the law constitutional and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld it.
The two stores were the target of a sting operation by undercover police officers who bought videos that were later deemed obscene.
Porn videos are not illegal in the state, but its obscenity laws outlaws sex images that appeals to the “prurient interest” in sex and lacks “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”
