H. Louis Sirkin, attorney for Extreme Associates, is thinking about writing a letter to one of the larger advertisers in local newspapers.
"I should write to the United Dairy Farmers, 'You better watch your cows; they're endangered,’" he chuckled.
The inspiration for the letter was a statement in the Department of Justice's press release announcing that the government had decided to appeal Judge Gary Lancaster's decision in United States v. Extreme Associates.
"The Justice Department believes," stated the press release, "that the reasoning of the District Court in dismissing the indictment, if upheld, would undermine not only the federal laws, but all laws based on shared views of public morality, such as laws against prostitution, bestiality and bigamy."
"Prostitution, bestiality and bigamy?” Who knew?
"This guy from the Times, when he called me yesterday, I said, 'I didn't realize the extent of the bestiality problem in this country,’" Sirkin deadpanned. “And I didn't even realize that bigamy was a problem; I thought we took care of that when we got rid of it with the Mormons. So I guess the floodgates are open.
"They must have put in that bestiality thing because they knew I was involved in a bestiality case 20 years ago in North Carolina," he added.
The Feb. 16 decision to appeal was one of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales' first official actions since being sworn into office on Feb. 14, although Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra claimed that, "The decision was in the works before he took over."
That decision had to be a difficult one for the Justice Department, since the first stage would take the case to the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has a long history of pro-First Amendment decisions, including the striking down of part of the 1996 Communications Decency Act and two opinions upholding an injunction against the Child Online Protection Act. A loss there would make Judge Lancaster's opinion the law for the entire Third Circuit, which only includes Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the U.S. Virgin Islands (who knew?) but would set the stage for an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, whose decisions affect the entire country.
AVN.com asked Sirkin what would happen now that the government has filed notice of its intent to appeal.
“First they [U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan's office] receive a docket statement from the Third Circuit, after which they have to gather whatever transcripts or whatever that they have to have transported up [to the clerk of the Third Circuit]," Sirkin detailed. "And then at some point, the Third Circuit will issue a scheduling order. That's when they'll know when they, and we will have to file our briefs."
"I think we're in a good Circuit, and I think that's very, very encouraging, and hopefully, that's a very crowded docket and that appeal will take quite some time.”
Sirkin also sees the government's notice of appeal as a portent of the Bush administration's intentions to move against the adult industry.
"Everybody that Bush is putting on board right now are people that are very, very close and aligned completely, 100 percent, to him," Sirkin observed. "I think that he had some big differences with Ashcroft. I think Ashcroft was hurting him with the PATRIOT Act stuff – not the obscenity crap, but I think that they were clashing over that. I think that Ashcroft was probably stepping on some toes dealing with the bank records and other stuff of people that are around or supporters of Bush, and I think that's why they parted ways. Ashcroft wasn't talked about at all during the campaign, and he was one of the first to resign. I just have a feeling that Bush is now completely surrounding himself with everybody who's clearly a yes-man."
In fact, on Feb. 15, Gonzales announced three appointments to the Justice Department's senior staff, at least two of whom can probably be counted on to help push the administration's anti-adult agenda: New Chief of Staff Theodore W. Ullyot was Associate Counsel to President Bush when Gonzales was Bush's Chief Counsel; and after law school, Ullyot clerked for ultra-conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia during the 1995-1996 term.
Ullyot's new deputy, D. Kyle Sampson, served as Counsel to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Ut.) on the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1999-2001.
And yet, with all of the publicity surrounding the Extreme case, Sirkin still can't get a break in his local newspapers.
"But the really good thing is," Sirkin joked, "the Cincinnati paper had an article today about the Justice Department appealing the case, but they still didn't use my name. They will not put my name in it, even though they were aware of the decision and everything. And they were the first media in Cincinnati that had anything on the case, except for an article in the alternative weekly paper that said, 'Isn't it interesting that a decision like that, if it had been about a sporting event or something in Pittsburgh, it would have been reported here, but since it had something to do with something positive to the adult industry, the local papers wouldn't carry it.'"
