Assistant Attorney General Christopher A. Wray announced Thursday that the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is establishing an Obscenity Prosecution Task Force dedicated exclusively to the investigation and prosecution of obscenity cases.
The Task Force will be in addition to the Department's existing Child Exploitation and Obscenity Unit (CEOS), commanded by Andrew Oosterbaan, and the press release noted that CEOS "will continue to prosecute obscenity cases in addition to child pornography, child exploitation and [sex] trafficking."
The director of the Task Force, who was not named in the release, "will work closely with Bruce Taylor, Senior Counsel to the Criminal Division’s Assistant Attorney General, who will provide guidance in his capacity as Counsel to the Task Force."
Taylor, who was rehired by the DOJ in February of last year, is well-known as a former DOJ prosecutor in the National Obscenity Enforcement Unit, the predecessor to CEOS, and later, as President of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families. He has been continually active in efforts to suppress sexual speech, and politically aware members of the adult industry have been speculating for the past year as to what role Taylor would play in obscenity prosecution.
It is clear from the DOJ's statement that the Obscenity Prosecution Task Force will play the key Justice Department role in obscenity prosecution, since it has been given the power to draw on the expertise of several other DOJ divisions, including the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, and CEOS’s High-Tech Investigative Unit.
Those last two notations suggest that adult material on the Internet will be one of the Task Force's top priorities, though the use of the Organized Crime and Racketeering and Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering sections portend a full-scale assault on adult manufacturers and distributors. It is, after all, through those two divisions that the DOJ prosecutors will be attempting to pay for their efforts through both the Racketeer-Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) and obscenity forfeiture provisions of the law.
"Advances in technology and mass marketing, particularly over the past decade, have enabled the traffic in obscenity to take on a more national and even global reach," Wray noted in the press release. "The special challenges that obscenity cases pose in the computer age require an equally specialized response. A coordinated Task Force of prosecutorial expertise is the best way to meet those challenges."
Unmentioned by Wray is the question of whether the federal obscenity laws will survive the challenges presented in the Child Online Protection Act case, which has been before the U.S. Supreme Court twice, and which will soon go to trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has already opined twice that the international nature of the Internet exempts it from the "community standards" language of the three-prong test for obscenity established in the Miller v. California decision. With that issue still way up in the air, it seems premature for the Task Force to attempt to target material on the Internet.
Another reason for the creation of the Task Force at this time may be to attempt to create as many prosecutions as possible before the government's appeal in the case of United States v. Extreme Associates is heard by the Third Circuit. The opinion of U.S. District Court Judge Gary Lancaster dismissing the indictments in that case created shockwaves throughout the government, and led to a flurry of activity, including a Senate subcommittee hearing directed at finding ways around Judge Lancaster's decision, whose well-researched reasoning will be difficult to refute at higher judicial levels.
Wray's mention of trafficking also calls to mind the Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing, chaired by Sen. Sam Brownback, in which the senator closely questioned one witness, Prof. Frederick Schauer, as to the connections between sexual trafficking and adult video production.
Trafficking was also mentioned by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, in a speech on Tuesday before Gatlinburg Law Enforcement Conference in Gatlinburg, Tenn.
"Unfortunately," Gonzales said, referring to prosecution of allegedly obscene materials, "exploitation is not limited to magazines and the electronic medium. It can be found in the form of human trafficking. This form of modern-day slavery does not only exist in far away lands; it happens here on our shores. Aliens are smuggled into our country, held in bondage, treated as commodities, and stripped of their humanity... More work is needed to confront this heinous crime."
Wray seemed also to refer to trafficking later in the DOJ press release.
"The Justice Department is committed to respecting and protecting the First Amendment rights of all individuals," he said. "However, the welfare of America’s families and children demands that we enforce the laws on the books, and that is what this Task Force is designed to do. With the creation of this Task Force, our commitment to law enforcement in this vital area is taken one step further."
So far, the Task Force is not credited with having taken any actions, although Oosterbaan has recently been quoted as saying that there are approximately 20 obscenity investigations under way.
Keep checking with AVN.com for updates on this important issue.
