SUMMARY OF TESTIMONY Citizens for Decency through Law, Inc. strongly urges Congress to enact all of the provisions of this legislation. The changes and additions to existing federal law contained therein are absolutely essential if the traffic in obscenity and child pornography conducted in this country by organized crime is ever to be curtailed. Congressional intent against the sexual exploitation of men, women and children has been explicitly clear over the course of this century. United States Supreme Court recognition of the complete lack of First Amendment protection for obscene material is over thirty years old and has been only strengthened in subsequent Court pronouncements. And yet the illegal market in obscenity and child pornography was allowed to develop into its current multi-billion dollar magnitude because of a wholesale neglect on the part of most United States law enforcement officials over the last twenty years. All the while, the relatively tame materials available twenty years ago have degenerated to a level that deeply shames any caring human being. Congressional will against obscenity and child pornography, which reflects the opinion of the vast majority of citizens in this country, can still be achieved. Now, however, only measures sufficient to attack organized crime can succeed. This legislation contains those measures. For the most part, this written testimony has left the advancement of policy arguments supporting this legislation to the Justice Department, concerned citizens and citizen groups. We wholeheartedly agree with the many that we have reviewed, including those of the Justice Department and those of many of this country's religious leaders. We trust that Congress will find them completely persuasive. CDL has, therefore, restricted itself to testifying to the creation of and the reliability of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, from which most of this legislation originates, and the constitutionality of each of the sections of this act. In summary, CDL testifies that the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography was well conducted by thoughtful, intelligent men and women who were both knowledgeable of and sensitive to all of the different aspects, including constitutional ones, associated with the issues of obscenity and child pornography. And, further, CDL testifies that the provisions contained in this act are consistent with and permissible under the Constitution of the United States. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee on Crime of the House Judiciary Committee: Thank you for the opportunity to present testimony in support of the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act of 1988. H.R. 3889 is an important Bill and you should give it your highest priority. This legislation proposes to amend various sections of the United States Code. As amended, the new law will: (1) prohibit interstate or foreign transmissions by computer of child pornography or advertisements and solicitations for child pornography; (2) prohibit the buying or selling of minors for the production of pornography; (3) require record keeping by producers of any pornography depicting "actual sexually explicit conduct;" (4) include sexual exploitation of children in the definition of "racketeering activity" in the federal R.I.C.o. statute; (5) prohibit the receipt or possession for sale or distribution of obscene matter which has been transported in interstate or foreign commerce, providing certain presumptions regarding the interstate transportation of the obscene matter; (6) allow forfeiture in obscenity cases; (7) prohibit obscenity on cable television; (8) amend the Communications Act of 1934; (9) prohibit possession and sale of obscene matter on federal property; (10) include obscenity offenses to the list of crimes for which the government may seek a court order authorizing electronic surveillance. This statement will demonstrate the need for these amendments and will provide supporting legal authority for enactment of this legislation. I. THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S COMMISSION ON PORNOGRAPHY AND ITS From 1981 to 1985, I was an Assistant United States Attorney and became Chief of the Criminal Section of the United States Attorneys Office for the Western District of Kentucky (Louisville). During that tenure, I successfully convicted two of the largest distributors of obscenity in the world--the Cleveland based Sovereign News Company and General Video of America--of federal felony charges along with several other employees. I have also assisted in numerous other federal, state and local prosecutions in obscenity matters. On May 22, 1984, President Reagan requested that Attorney General William French Smith establish a Commission on Pornography. The Commission, established in June 1985, was "...to determine the nature, extent and impact on society of pornography in the United States and to make specific recommendations to the Attorney General concerning more effective ways in which the spread of pornography could be contained, consistent with constitutional guarantees." Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, Final Report, Appendix A (1986) (Commission's Charter). The Commission, acting within the mandate of its charter, studied the dimensions of the problem of pornography with the main emphasis on visual and graphic pornography. The Commission studied changes in the nature, volume, media forms, production and distribution of pornographic materials that have occurred "over the last several years." Id. The study included two topics, child pornography and the role of organized crime in the -2 business of pornography, not covered in the 1970 Presidential Commission on Pornography. The Commission reviewed the available empirical and scientific evidence on the relationship between exposure to pornography and antisocial behavior, and evidence on the impact of the creation and dissemination of adult and child pornography upon children. Federal, state and local laws regulating pornography were also reviewed and recommendations were made for further constitutionally valid controls. From March 1985 to July of 1986, I was Executive Director of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography. As Executive Director, I was responsible for selecting and supervising the staff, managing the six public hearings, preparing of the Final Report and oversight of all activities of the Commission. Each member of the former Congress was provided a copy of the Final Report of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography in July of 1986. As you and your staffs reviewed the document, I am sure that you found little resemblance to what its critics had said about it before release. During the course of eighteen months, the Commission received and reviewed copies of every published study from the social sciences, every published Law Review article on related subjects, hundreds of submitted written statements, thousands of citizen letters, listened to the testimony of more than 200 witnesses at six public hearings across the United States conducted in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Illinois, Houston, Texas, Los Angeles, California, Miami, Florida, and New York, New York. The witnesses represented every relevant profession, |