Ethics

Supreme Court Alters First Amendment

By Ed Brayton

This week's ruling in US v Williams was widely reported in the media as being a case about child porn, but that is actually rather incidental to the reality of the case. Yes, it was immediately about evaluating the constitutionality of a law designed to punish the distribution of child porn, but the ruling actually has a much broader and far-reaching effect than that. In effect, the Supreme Court has declared a new exception to the first amendment: a solicitaton to crime exception.

The ruling was 7-2, with Scalia writing the majority opinion, which was joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito, Kennedy, Thomas, Stevens and Breyer. Stevens wrote a concurring opinion, joined by Justice Breyer and Justice Souter wrote a dissent, joined by Justice Ginsburg. That's an unusual lineup, to be sure.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on May 22, 2008 (boomark / email).