Chet The Dog

Posts Tagged ‘Alito’

United States Vs. Stevens, 08-769

JUSTICE ALITO, dissenting.

“The Court strikes down in its entirety a valuable statute, 18 U. S. C. §48, that was enacted not to suppress speech, but to prevent horrific acts of animal cruelty—in particular, the creation and commercial exploitation of “crush videos,” a form of depraved entertainment that has no social value.”

“The First Amendment protects freedom of speech, but it most certainly does not protect violent criminal conduct, even if engaged in for expressive purposes. Crush videos present a highly unusual free speech issue because they are so closely linked with violent criminal conduct.  The videos record the commission of violent criminal acts, and it appears that these crimes are committed for the sole purpose of creating the videos.  In addition, as noted above, Congress was presented with compelling evidence that the only way of preventing these crimes was to target the sale of the videos. Under these circumstances, I cannot believe that the First Amendment commands Congress to step aside and allow the underlying crimes to continue. “

The Alitos have a springer spaniel named Zeus. We’re guessing Zeus gets treated properly.

Tonight at 7, Norwell (MA) Reads: Spencer Quinn (at the library).