Last week the United States Senate passed a resolution by unanimous consent calling for the attorney general and the Department of Justice to enact “ vigorous enforcement of the Federal obscenity laws.”
The resolution, introduced to the floor by Senator Orin Hatch, doesn’t attempt to create new law. It simply says that obscenity laws should be enforced.
The resolution was passed by unanimous consent, which means that no one objected to the resolution, but not that the entire Senate voted in favor of the resolution.
The body of the resolution cites a poll by Wirthlin Worldwide that suggests 81 percent of the country wants obscenity laws strictly enforced.
Of course that same poll, funded by anti-porn activists Morality in Media, found that 59 percent of the country felt that the FCC needed to work harder to enforce broadcast indecency laws.
Other sources cited as reasons for prosecuting obscenity include the 1986 Final Report of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography conducted by Edwin Meese, the last federally appointed anti-porn crusader.
While the resolution establishes no new legal ground, supporters of the resolution hope that combined with a concurrent version of the resolution that is also being considered in the House of Representatives, the attorney general may feel that he has enough support to attack the adult industry in earnest.
However, the resolution offers prosecutor’s no hints as to how they are supposed to convict a man of obscenity violations for selling or buying material that has been widely reported as having become more and more acceptable in recent years.
The version of the concurrent resolution by the House of Representatives currently sits in committee, where it has been for over a month.
