A long-time right wing child protection advocate believes recent rulings in two high-profile Oregon cases is proof that the ACLU no longer defends "the little guy," but instead sides with the adult industry, Agape Press reports.
Noted writer and a member of the religious right, Dr. Judith Reisman, said this week that two recent Oregon Supreme Court cases - State of Oregon v. Ciancanelli and City of Nyssa v. Dufloth/Smith – confirm, in her opinion, that the ACLU backs the porn industry. Reisman says the recently decided cases in Oregon demonstrate that the ACLU, in her opinion, defends the most extreme elements of a sex-oriented business that now, with these cases, includes "live sex" shows.
Reisman asserts that the two Oregon casesdemonstrate just how far the ACLU will go. Late last month, Oregon's high court struck down a state law that banned live sex shows (Ciancanelli) as well as an ordinance that regulated the conduct of nude dancers (Dufloth). The court, in two majority 5-1 decisions, ruled that both laws violated the state's freedom of speech and expression as stated in the Oregon State Constitution, which was written in 1859. The lone dissenter in both cases, Justice Paul De Muniz, could not concur with the five other justices who viewed "masturbation and sexual intercourse in a 'live public show'" as a form of speech provided for in the state constitution. In both cases, the Oregon chapter of the ACLU filed a motion supporting the right of the strip club owners to facilitate sexual contact between consenting adults.
“The ACLU is certainly able to defend their decisions and principles against the indecipherable spin of a Judith Reisman, one of the usual suspects used in the media on a regular basis by the intolerant far right wing of the country’s ultra-conservatives,” Tom Hymes, communications director for the Free Speech Coalition, told AVN.com.
“For the record, the Free Speech Coalition is proud of Oregon’s Supreme Court for rendering recent decisions that confirm the rights of individuals to express their sexuality without government interference."
Hymes continued, “Where Reisman sees a vast conspiracy between the ACLU and the porn industry, there is in fact a simple agreement on certain principles, one we would never expect Mrs. Reisman to understand and yet we still hold out hope that one day she will see through her ideology of hate and come into the light."
