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Judge rules in favor of pornography business
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ^ | Saturday, January 22, 2005 | Chris Osher

Posted on 01/22/2005 9:47:06 PM PST by w6ai5q37b

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed federal obscenity charges against a California couple and their pornographic video business that distributed graphic videos depicting rape and murder. The case against Extreme Associates and its owners, filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, was the first federal obscenity prosecution in decades against a producer of pornographic material. It was considered to herald a renewed anti-obscenity campaign by the U.S. Justice Department.

U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster dismissed the 10-count obscenity indictment against Robert Zicari, 31, also known as Rob Black, and his wife, Janet Romano, 27, also known as Lizzie Borden, of Northridge, Calif., and their porn business, Extreme Associates Inc.

(Excerpt) Read more at livesite.pittsburghlive.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: garylancaster; pornography; supremecourt
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If you pick up your Constitution, you should note two things:

1. Congress has the power to disband all federal courts inferior to the Supreme Court, and

2. Pornography is not a Federal issue and the Justice Department should stay out of it and let the states decide on it. But this goes back to point #1; that as long as we have these clowns in federal judge robes usurping state authority, we'll need the Justice Department to assume the duty of maintaining morality in this country. Here the Federal Government is both the poison and the cure.
1 posted on 01/22/2005 9:47:08 PM PST by w6ai5q37b
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To: w6ai5q37b
their pornographic video business that distributed graphic videos depicting rape and murder

WHAT!?

2 posted on 01/22/2005 9:50:27 PM PST by silent_jonny (LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF ALL THOSE THAT THREATEN IT)
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To: w6ai5q37b
Pornography is not a Federal issue and the Justice Department should stay out of it and let the states decide on it.

As long as the First Amendment applies to the states via the 14th Amendment, pornography is a federal issue.

Here the Federal Government is both the poison and the cure.

What do you want?
3 posted on 01/22/2005 9:52:04 PM PST by BikerNYC
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To: w6ai5q37b

This case is distressing to me for its Pittsburgh angle, since I'm a resident of Pittsburgh PA, and it pains me to see a local judge making this kind of ruling.


4 posted on 01/22/2005 9:55:18 PM PST by Ciexyz (I use the term Blue Cities, not Blue States. PA is red except for Philly, Pgh & Erie)
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To: w6ai5q37b
Actually, it is a federal issue. See the following SCOTUS decisions:

Chaplinsky vs. New Hampshire (1942):

"There are certain well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech, the prevention and punishment of which have never been thought to raise any Constitutional problem. These include the lewd and obscene, the profane, the libelous, and the insulting or 'fighting' words....It has been well observed that such utterances are no essential part of any exposition of ideas, and are of such slight social value as a step to truth that any benefit that may be derived from them is clearly outweighed by the social interest in order and morality."

Roth vs. The United States (1957)

"Obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected freedom of speech or press--either (1) under the First Amendment, as to the Federal Government, or (2) under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, as to the States.... In the light of history, it is apparent that the unconditional phrasing of the First Amendment was not intended to protect every utterance.... The protection given speech and press was fashioned to assure unfettered interchange of ideas for the bringing about of political and social changes desired by the people.... All ideas having even the slightest redeeming social importance--unorthodox ideas, controversial ideas, even ideas hateful to the prevailing climate of opinion--have the full protection of the guaranties, unless excludable because they encroach upon the limited area of more important interests; but implicit in the history of the First Amendment is the rejection of obscenity as utterly without redeeming social importance.

Of course, these were overturned in the 1960s, when people knew better than our Founding Fathers. So much for precedent actually counting for something. It seems that precedent only counts as long as it extends only as far back as the 60s.
5 posted on 01/22/2005 10:05:29 PM PST by Antoninus (In hoc sign, vinces †)
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To: Ciexyz

What I find even more disturbing is Terrrezzzzza's support of the Liberal cause. She probably knows this judge very well!


6 posted on 01/22/2005 10:06:00 PM PST by 26lemoncharlie (Sit nomen Dómini benedíctum,Ex hoc nunc, et usque in sæculum! per ómnia saecula saeculórum)
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To: w6ai5q37b

Surprise, surprise...another Clinton appointee.


7 posted on 01/22/2005 10:26:34 PM PST by I got the rope
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To: Antoninus

President Bush's campaign for worldwide democracy and liberty would have a lot more weight to it if our own society weren't so degraded by the moral-liberalism and permissiveness of the baby-boomer generation. Alas, only perverts and criminals get to enjoy their free will; no one else is allowed to.


8 posted on 01/22/2005 10:35:55 PM PST by Cultural Jihad
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To: w6ai5q37b

#26 on the following list:

Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."


EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Thursday, January 10, 1963

Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America.

At Mrs. Nordman's request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following "Current Communist Goals," which she identifies as an excerpt from "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen:

[From "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen]

CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ["]united force["] to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.


9 posted on 01/22/2005 10:38:16 PM PST by ROTB
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To: ROTB

Man, that list pi$$es me off every time I see it!


10 posted on 01/22/2005 10:45:00 PM PST by 68 grunt (3/1 India, 3rd, 68-69, 0311)
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To: w6ai5q37b

Slick moved? Did he?


11 posted on 01/22/2005 10:47:31 PM PST by Cobra64 (Babes should wear Bullet Bras - www.BulletBras.net)
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To: 68 grunt

Man, that list pi$$es me off every time I see it!


Then it must be working! :)


12 posted on 01/22/2005 10:59:44 PM PST by loboinok (GUN CONTROL IS HITTING WHAT YOU AIM AT.)
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To: loboinok

It is not the posting of the list which torque's me, but the success'es of the list. Arrrrgggghhhhhhhh


13 posted on 01/22/2005 11:03:48 PM PST by 68 grunt (3/1 India, 3rd, 68-69, 0311)
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To: Antoninus

I was born too late.


14 posted on 01/22/2005 11:20:15 PM PST by Mockingbird For Short ("An irreligious fanatic is just as dangerous as a religious fanatic.")
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To: w6ai5q37b

Here's a third option, albeit unpopular with some on this board:
Congress shall make no law *** abridging the freedom of speech***


15 posted on 01/23/2005 12:05:15 AM PST by Goldwater4ever (Voted early, voted often... for Bush)
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To: Goldwater4ever

Put a period after "Congress shall make no law." My pocketbook and personal freedoms would be better off as a consequence. If we could add "The judiciary shall make no law" too this country would be heading in the right direction.


16 posted on 01/23/2005 1:04:47 AM PST by peyton randolph (CAIR supports TROP terrorists)
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To: silent_jonny

which part do you not understand?


17 posted on 01/23/2005 1:12:56 AM PST by isom35
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To: Ciexyz

People shouldn't leave their young children alone with such a judge.


18 posted on 01/23/2005 1:29:48 AM PST by muawiyah (Egypt didn't invent civilization time)
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To: isom35
which part do you not understand? The way I read that line ("their pornographic video business that distributed graphic videos depicting rape and murder"), it sounded like they were selling porno snuff films.
19 posted on 01/23/2005 7:03:05 AM PST by silent_jonny (LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF ALL THOSE THAT THREATEN IT)
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To: Goldwater4ever

I agree 100% with you.


20 posted on 01/25/2005 2:25:41 AM PST by spetznaz (Nuclear tipped ICBMs: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol.)
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