You have to read to the last page of the U.S. Department of Justice's new "Obscenity Prosecution News" .pdf document to find that its news editor is Bruce A. Taylor, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general, Criminal Division – the same Bruce A. Taylor who began his career as an assistant prosecutor in Cleveland, Ohio; who worked doggedly in the '80s to attempt to get adult entrepreneur Reuben Sturman convicted of something; who served as a senior trial attorney in the National Obscenity Enforcement Unit during the term of George H.W. Bush; who founded the National Law Center for Children and Families, a right-wing pro-censorship organization; who testified as a witness in favor of several pieces of anti-speech legislation such as the Child Pornography Prevention Act; and who was rehired by the Justice Department (DOJ) in February, 2004 – that Bruce Taylor.
Many had wondered what Taylor was doing with his time in the 14 months since the conservative religious e-zines made such a fanfare of his rehiring, and now we know: Besides "advising" on the creation of the Obscenity Prosecution Task Force, he was hard at work putting together Volume 1, Number 1 of the "DOJ – Obscenity Prosecution News," a seven-page rundown of some of the things the Justice Department has been doing in an attempt to shut down free sexual speech in America.
Perhaps most of interest is that this is a publication of the Department's Criminal Division, rather than of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), which heretofore had been charged with coordinating all federal obscenity and child porn prosecutions – and in fact, there is no link to this document from anything in the CEOS section of the Justice Department's Website. (Thanks and a hat tip to Chicago attorney J.D. Obenberger for turning up a link to the document, which can be found here.
"The fact that the existing section of the Justice Department, which is the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, appears to be having a portion of their jurisdiction removed implies that there is infighting at the Justice Department, perhaps reflecting a lack of commitment to waste resources on prosecuting consensual activity by adults," said attorney Jeffrey Douglas of the creation of the Obscenity Prosecution Task Force, but the sentiment seems equally applicable to Taylor's obscenity newsletter as well.
In terms of content, many adult industry professionals were surprised, upon seeing the document, to find that the DOJ has held not one but two additional obscenity prosecution training symposia since the original one in May, 2004. At that time, "experts" including Taylor himself, other pro-censorship activists and even Det. Steve Takeshita of LAPD's Organized Crime Vice Division lectured Assistant U.S. Attorneys from across the country, as well as DOJ staff prosecutors, in what was described as "three days of sharing, training, and updates on law, technology, and criminal procedure" for session #3, which took place in September, 2004.
"Federal prosecutors and investigators obtained the latest information on case law, investigative procedures and techniques, statutory provisions and elements, technical considerations, trial techniques, and constitutional challenges," wrote Taylor of the September seminar. "In each of these assemblies, the participants were provided the latest and most complete analysis of the statutes and case law. DOJ attorneys, guest lecturers, and veteran investigators from the federal and state law enforcement community gave the attendees information and guidance on the state of the law and of the issues facing the criminal justice system in modern-day obscenity law enforcement."
Also present is an update on obscenity prosecutions brought by CEOS since President George W. Bush has been in office. Allegedly, 40 obscenity cases have been brought during the Bush administration, with indictments outstanding against 19 persons or entities – and in a backhanded slap at the Clinton administration, it is also noted that just four prosecutions were brought from 1993 to 2000. However, as attorney Paul Cambria has said elsewhere, most of the "obscenity prosecutions" claimed by CEOS were in fact bargained guilty pleas by defendants accused of possessing child pornography, where the government was unable to prove, or thought it would have a difficult time proving, that the images in question were of actual children, as opposed to young-looking adults or computer-generated pictures.
The newsletter also contains a synopsis of the government's prosecution of Texas retailer John Kenneth Coil and several members of his extended family, though this report manages to obscure the fact that the vast majority of charges against the defendants were tax-related, with only three obscenity counts brought against each of five defendants (reportedly so that the government could invoke obscenity forfeiture provisions of the racketeering law, and gain increased sentences under the then-mandatory sentencing guidelines).
Finally, there is a long "farewell" to Attorney General John Ashcroft, who, for all his speeches promising a crackdown on sexually explicit material – a long portion of his address to the first obscenity symposium is quoted – brought only one major indictment against a recognized adult video producer: Extreme Associates.
The newsletter is dated "Spring 2005," suggesting that it is to be published quarterly – and now that adult industry members know where to look for it, they will eagerly be awaiting its next issue.