Subject: College Art Association signs anticensorship amicus brief for upcoming First Amendment court case
CAA has signed an amicus curiae brief, prepared by the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), regarding a crucial First Amendment issue now facing the US Supreme Court.
US v. Robert Stevens involves part of a federal statute (18 U.S.C. § 48) that makes it a crime to own, possess, or display depictions of animal cruelty if the acts portrayed are illegal in the state where someone owns, possesses, or sells them—even if the acts portrayed weren’t illegal when or where they were performed.
A conviction in US v. Robert Stevens was recently reversed on appeal on the ground that the prohibition on the depiction alone violates the First Amendment, and the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case in the fall.
CAA and NCAC believe Section 48 is unconstitutional because it could deter and punish the production, distribution, and even the simple possession of constitutionally protected speech. If the lower court’s decision is reversed, not only will some lawful expression depicting animals being killed or injured be subject to criminal sanction, but the ramifications are also far-reaching: Congress and the states could outlaw the creation and possession of artworks that depict certain types of conduct simply on the basis that the conduct itself is illegal.
This would chill a wide range of expression, including, potentially, art that depicts such criminal activities as terrorist acts, drug use, and certain types of sexual behavior. Although CAA does not condone cruelty to animals or any other sort of unlawful conduct, CAA has long and firmly opposed artistic and scholarly censorship of all kinds.
See http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.collegeart.org/news/2009/07/28/caa-signs-anticensorship-amicus-brief-for-us-v-stevens/ for more information and http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.collegeart.org/pdf/CAA-NCAC-amicus-brief.pdf to read the full amicus brief.
We encourage your thoughts? If you’re an artist working in the areas of animals, pornography, or 1st amendment censorship – let us know how this impacts you.
