The American Library Association’s Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) was one of seven plaintiffs in Ohio to win a restraining order August 2 against an amended law that adds digital transmissions to the list of formats in which it is criminal to display images of sexual acts or “extreme or bizarre violence, cruelty, or brutality” to a minor. The law was to go into effect August 6.
U.S. District Court Judge Walter Rice said that he planned to issue a preliminary injunction, which will force the case to go to trial. Judge Rice explained that he found the law’s definition of what constitutes material that is harmful to minors to be overbroad, the Associated Press reported August 5.
At a July 31 hearing, plaintiff attorney Michael Bamberger asserted that the law “covers much material that has nothing to do with child predators.” Plaintiff Mitchell Tepper, founder of the Sexual Health Network (a sex-education site for people with disabilities), testified that he’d “have to risk prosecution” to stay in business because of the explicit questions his site receives. “We’re not after publishers. We’re after predators,” responded Ohio Assistant Attorney General Elise Porter, according to the August 1 AP.
Posted August 12, 2002.