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Home Page We advocate on all animal protection and exploitation issues, including experimentation, factory farming, rodeos, breeders and traveling animal acts. Animal Defenders of Westchester |
Articles Supreme court rules violent animal abuse videos are protected as free speech Published in the NY Daily News
WASHINGTON - The
Supreme Court struck down a federal
law Tuesday aimed at banning videos that show graphic violence against
animals, saying it violates the right to free speech. The justices, voting 8-1, threw out the criminal conviction of
Robert Stevens of
Pittsville, Va., who was sentenced
to three years in prison for videos he made about pit bull fights. The law was enacted in 1999 to limit Internet sales of so-called crush
videos, which appeal to a certain sexual fetish by showing women crushing to
death small animals with their bare feet or high-heeled shoes. The videos virtually disappeared once the measure became law, the
government argued. But
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing
for the majority, said the law goes too far, suggesting that a measure
limited to crush videos might be valid. In dissent,
Justice Samuel Alito said the harm
animals suffer in dogfights is enough to sustain the law. To file complaints with your elected officials:
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