John D. Ashcroft, Attorney General, et al. v. the Free Speech Coalition et al. (535 U.S. 234)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 16, 2002 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 535 U.S. 234 · 122 S. Ct. 1389
- Decided
- April 16, 2002
- Term
- October Term 2001
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Kennedy
- Issue area
- First Amendment
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
- Constitutional ruling
- Federal law held unconstitutional
Opinion excerpt
Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court. We consider in this case whether the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 (CPPA), 18 U. S. C. §2251 et seq., abridges the freedom of speech. The CPPA extends the federal prohibition against child pornography to sexually explicit images that appear to depict minors but were produced without using any real children. The statute prohibits, in specific circumstances, possessing or distributing these images, which may be created by using adults who look like minors or by using computer imaging. The new technology, according to Congress, makes it possible to create realistic images of children who do not exist. See Congressional Findings, notes following 18 U. S. C. §2251. By prohibiting child pornography that does not depict an actual child, the statute goes beyond New York v. Ferber, 458 U. S. 747 (1982), which distinguished child pornography from other sexually explicit speech because of the State’s interest in protecting the children exploited by the production process. See id., at 758. As a general rule, pornography can be banned only if obscene, but under Ferber, pornography showing minors can be proscribed whether or not the images are obscene under the definition set forth in Miller v. California, 413 U. S. 15 (1973). Ferber recognized that “[t]he Miller standard, like all general definitions of what may be banned as…
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