A recent story reported that at the urging of Abilene anti-adult entertainment proponent Phil Cosby, the state House Federal and State Affairs Committee has proposed a fix for the state’s obscenity statute.
Jim Sullinger’s story in the Kansas City Star reported that lawmakers found the existing statute too broad, since it includes under the definition of obscenity anything with a “sexually provocative aspect.”
In 1990 the Kansas Supreme Court found that those three words made the state law defining obscenity unconstitutional because they, in effect, criminalized sex. However, despite the ruling, those three little words are still in the law, and that, according to Cosby, creates a problem in getting county prosecutors to bring criminal charges against adult businesses.
Last year, says Cosby, because of the words, a judge threw out charges brought by a grand jury last year against the Lion's Den Adult Superstore in Abilene.
"We have a criminal statute that is not functional," Representative Arlen Siegfreid (R-Olathe) told the Kansas City Star.
Portions of this courtesy of the Free Speech X-Press, the weekly newsletter of the Free Speech Coalition. More info at www.freespeechcoalition.com.
