Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Now It's The Bedroom Police

Analysis: Sex tapers can thank 3rd Circuit for 1st Amendment protection | Reuters

...Those record-keeping requirements, Magaziner said, are no small thing. Must a married couple that makes a sex tape post IDs at their "business premises"? Must they make their records available to government inspectors? And can the government use the criminal record-keeping laws to punish people targeted for other crimes? As the ACLU's eloquent 34-page brief explained, "history shows that government agents have been known to use laws that are rarely otherwise enforced to punish people who are being investigated for unrelated crimes." That's a pretty scary thought: Police raid your house, find no evidence to back the crime they initially alleged, but you spend a year in prison for a homemade sex tape that didn't include a label noting where you keep your driver's license? Sure, the Justice Department may have promised not to prosecute private sex tapers, but the ACLU brief suggests we can't necessarily rely on such promises...

No comments: