The Free Speech Coalition submitted a master list of members to a court-appointed special master on Wednesday, on time and under the terms of a stipulation between FSC and the U.S. Justice Department approved by the court last week, FSC announced June 30.
The stipulation, FSC said, gave individuals and companies until June 25 at 2 p.m. to sign up as FSC members if they wanted to be exempt from 18 U.S.C.§2257 records inspection and enforcement pending the outcome of a legal challenge to new regulations for enforcement of the law. The FSC said it kept to the deadline strictly, and only those adult entertainment industry professionals who joined before the deadline were included on the list.
A hearing on the FSC’s motion for a preliminary injunction against the new 2257 regulations is set for August 1-2. Such an injunction would "likely" cover FSC members who signed up after June 25, FSC said.
Adult entertainment attorney Clyde DeWitt said the stipulation in question "clearly does" cover those who join FSC after June 25.
"No one suggested the injunction should be confined to members of the FSC for any particular time," DeWitt said. "If you look at the stipulation, it's clear that any member of FSC is covered. The only difference is, the people who got in before the deadline are on this [master] list, and the Department of Justice has agreed to check the list before they inspect anybody. That doesn't mean that someone not on the list but who is a member of the FSC couldn't greet them at the door with evidence of [FSC] membership."
The list will be sealed and kept from scrutiny by anyone other than the special master, FSC staff, and members of the organization’s board of directors, FSC said.
“We’re delighted by the strong support of the industry,” FSC Executive Director Michelle Freridge said of the increase in the organization’s membership roster brought about by the looming specter of records inspections for non-FSC members, “and though we wish it didn’t have to happen under threat of abusive government regulations, we want to ensure all members, new and old, that we will continue to fight on their behalf, in this and future battles, to preserve the health and viability of the adult entertainment industry.”
FSC Communications Director Tom Hymes said the number of new members who have joined the group since last week’s court hearing in Free Speech Coalition v Alberto Gonzalez will not be released.
