Porn Czar's Proposal to Relax Anti-Nudity Law Is Tough Sell

Porn Czar's Proposal to Relax Anti-Nudity Law Is Tough Sell
Friday, January 18, 2002

Persuading the Legislature to fix an unconstitutional anti-nudity law on Utah's books appears likely to be a tough job for state porn czar Paula Houston.

Lawmakers on Thursday peppered Houston with questions and complaints about House Bill 236, which would relax the existing outright ban on public displays of sex acts, nudity or partial nudity to conform to court rulings. In addition, moral watchdog Gayle Ruzicka pushed lawmakers to retain the law -- regardless of what the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled.

Members of the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee allowed the measure to stay alive for future debate, but not until they amended it to strip out a provision allowing some public depictions of sex acts.

"I can't see any serious value to a picture of a sex act," said Rep. Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, who amended the bill.

Houston and the bill's sponsor, Rep. Peggy Wallace, R-West Jordan, found themselves scrambling to convince legislators that they are not out to weaken anti-pornography laws aimed at protecting children.

"We don't want to loosen the law to say that minors can look at any nudity," said Houston. "It has to have serious value."

Houston said the statute should conform with court rulings on obscenity so that it does not violate free-speech guarantees by banning material with artistic, literary, political or scientific value.

If not corrected, most prosecutors will refuse to file cases or if they do, they will lose, she said.

"All nudity cannot be obscene," explained Wallace. Otherwise, everything from National Geographic magazine to Michelangelo's famous statue of David would be outlawed.

"It would be a real loss to society if we were to lose those works of art" for public display, she said.

Ruzicka was having none of it, labeling as "outrageous" any attempt to water down anti-obscenity laws.

"When it comes to something like this, do we care what the Supreme Court [of the United States] has said?" said Ruzicka, head of the Utah Eagle Forum. "Maybe it should be Utah that should go back to the Supreme Court and say, 'I don't think so.' "

Lockhart also indicated some willingness to take on the nation's high court, suggesting it was "judicial activism" telling states what kind of obscenity laws they can have.

"They're the ones who have the right to interpret the Constitution, and we have to work within the Constitution," she said.

In a later interview, Houston said her research indicates the current nudity law never has been challenged, although it has been used in at least some prosecutions during the past dozen years or more it has been on the books.

Houston and Wallace acknowledged that passing the bill will be tough, but they are willing to work at it.

"I'm not one who is intimidated by Gayle Ruzicka," said Wallace, acknowledging that some lawmakers are "very much so."

Here is the Deseret News' take on the issue.

Porn czar Paula Houston's job was created by a conservative Utah Legislature to crack down on pornography, and now she's butting heads with them over public indecency in the presence of minors.
Utah's law outright prohibits access to nudity, partial nudity, illicit sex or sexual immorality in public, but the U.S. Supreme Court requires states to allow some types of questionable material on those topics.
Houston is trying to bring Utah law in line with federal case law, but some legislators don't want Utah's public indecency laws changed.
"So we're changing the law because the Supreme Court told us to?" said Rep. Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, during a heated discussion of the bill on Thursday.
The high court requires states to allow minors access to material with serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value (known as the SLAPS test), or their statutes could be deemed unconstitutionally overbroad.
Members of the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee couldn't see anything of serious value with material that deals with illicit sex or sexual immorality. And the Utah Eagle Forum suggested that Utah challenge the Supreme Court's admonition.
"Do we care what the Supreme Court said?" Eagle Forum president Gayle Ruzicka said.
"Utah legislators can't pass a law that says it's ever OK for kids to see illicit or immoral acts."
Rep. Peggy Wallace, R-West Jordan, worked closely with Houston in drafting HB236, which would allow minors to view nude or partially nude art, such as Michelangelo's "David," or Rodin's "The Kiss," for example.
Material in question must pass the SLAPS test, and most people would agree that "David" has serious artistic value, Wallace said.
And while there didn't appear to be disagreement over nudity or partial nudity material, Houston couldn't come up with examples of illicit sexual or sexually immoral material with serious value.
But she cautioned that doesn't mean there isn't any.
"There is still that possibility," Houston said, which means the bill wouldn't lawsuit-proof as amended by the committee.
The amendment made it so the SLAPS condition would not apply to illicit sexual or sexually immoral material.
Illicit sex or sexual immorality includes, "human genitals in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal" and "acts of . . . sexual intercourse" — material which could appear in a human sexuality course, or in diagrams on a doctor's wall.
Depicting erect male genitalia, even in a strictly biological or clinical sense, would be prohibited by the bill's amendments, Wallace acknowledged.
"It could not be depicted in a public display with minors," Wallace said, which includes schools, libraries and art galleries. "As (the bill) was amended, teachers could not show the biology of a fully aroused state."
State curriculum for sex education is heavily legislated and monitored already, and the Utah State Office of Education does not think this bill would significantly impact sex education courses.
"You show pictures strictly for, 'these are the parts of the anatomy,' " said curriculum director Vickie Dahn. "I don't believe teachers go into what the parts of the anatomy look like in an aroused state."

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.