They may not have been invited to appear live, but the Free Speech Coalition was still encouraged to submit written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights—and said in that testimony that individuals and not government should pick what's valuable to them.
"(I)t is fundamental to a free and democratic society that adults choose for themselves what they say, hear, read, and see," said FSC in the written testimony, whose actual author was not attributed.
"Whether in the marketplace of goods or in the marketplace of ideas, individuals retain the autonomy to select that which has value to them," the testimony continued. "This is not to say that individuals can impose their preferences upon others. Thus those who would avoid sexually oriented expression altogether cannot limit others from reading or seeing it. Likewise, those who enjoy such expression and find it worthwhile may not expose it to the unwilling."
The FSC submission was included for the February hearing, "Obscenity and Prosecution of the First Amendment," for which the subcommittee—as happened at recent hearings tied to obscenity or adult entertainment—did not invite live testimony from any adult entertainment representatives. The hearing has now been scheduled for February 16 at 3 p.m. Eastern time. FSC denounced that lack of invitation as yet another bid to sandbag adult entertainment.
The subcommittee hearing comes in the wake of Senate Judiciary Committee members Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) denouncing in an op-ed column the late January federal court ruling that tossed obscenity charges against Extreme Associates owner-producer Rob Black and his wife, Lizzy Borden.
FSC's written subcommittee testimony said the Extreme ruling by U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster represented "the appropriate line to draw" regarding protection of both children and unwilling adults from obscenity properly defined.
"It is a line required by our constitutional protections and fully consistent with our most basic social and legal traditions," the FSC testimony said. "Sexually explicit expression is inappropriate for the billboard, the unsolicited mailing, and Internet spam. It is inappropriately directed at children.
"But for thirty-five years we have recognized the right of adults to read and see any material, even the obscene, in the privacy of the home," the testimony continued. "This results not only from our profound commitment to freedom of speech and of the press but also from our careful concern for individual privacy and autonomy in intimate matters. This nation has thrived without substantially restricting expression on political, religious, economic and many, many other subjects. There is no reason why a strong and democratic society needs to ban expression because of its sexual content."
Whether Brownback or Hatch testify before the subcommittee isn't know, but scheduled live witnesses include Catholic University of America law professor Robert Destro, Thomas M. Cooley Law School associate professor William Wagner, and Harvard First Amendment professor of the John F. Kennedy School of Government Frederick Schauer.
