Page 54 - AVN January 2013

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LEGALESE | By Clyde DeWitt
The Thirty Years War AVN’s milestone compels a review of the era’s legal wars
Clyde DeWitt is a Las Vegas and Los Angeles
attorney, whose practice has been focused on adult
entertainment since 1980. He can be reached at
ClydeDeWitt@earthlink.net. More information can be
found at ClydeDeWitt.com. This column is not a
substitute for personal legal advice. Rather, it is to
alert readers to legal issues warranting advice from
your personal attorney.
In 1983, a Temple University journalism graduate named Paul Fishbein saw a need for a trade publication to cover the exploding
adult video industry. Obtaining consent from his boss to undertake that sideline endeavor, he sent out a newsletter, Adult Video
News. Paul soon quit his job, launching AVN as a full-time endeavor. He budgeted 25 bucks a week for personal expenses. The
rest is history.
Much has transpired in the 30 years of AVN’s existence. From the legal perspective, here are some of the most significant:
LEGAL NEWS
President Reagan
also appointed
Edwin Meese III as
attorney general;
Meese would
quarterback the
administration’s
near-decade-long
assault on the adult
video industry
”
President Reagan’s Reelection (1984)
Reagan trounced Walter Mondale 525-13 in the Electoral College, giving the
charismatic president immense political capital coupled with a huge debt to the
emerging political power of the religious right. The latter would be punctuated
by his Supreme Court appointments, especially the elevation of William H.
Rehnquist to Chief Justice and appointment of Antonin Scalia as associate
justice; and, as noted below, the attempted appointment of Robert Bork.
President Reagan also appointed a roster of very conservative lower-court
judges, turning the federal bench as a whole to substantially favoring the right.
While the administration fervently denied it, there is little doubt that the lesson
learned from Sandra Day O’Connor was that a litmus test was needed for
judges with assurances that they would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.
President Reagan also appointed Edwin Meese III as attorney general;
Meese would quarterback the administration’s near-decade-long assault on the
adult video industry.
The Helms Amendment (1984)
North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms was one of the fiercest enemies of adult
entertainment. In a never-debated, eleventh-hour amendment to an unrelated
bill engineered by Senator Helms’ political cunning, state and federal obscenity
crimes were added to predicate RICO offenses. The result was that two obscenity
violations by an organization could result not only in 20-year sentences for
those involved but also in the forfeiture of the entire “enterprise.” Although the
Justice Department has to this day maintained a policy that RICO be used
sparingly, to be approved only by a top DOJ official, the Helms Amendment
later begat the addition of obscenity forfeitures and
obscenity as a predicate to the federal money launder-
ing law, which allows forfeitures almost as severe.
The Meese Commission Report (1986)
Although William French Smith was attorney general
when the president’s Commission on Obscenity and
Pornography was hatched, Edwin Meese III was a
Reagan staffer at the time and would become attorney
general in early 1985. Imitating the Kefauver
Commission on Organized Crime of the early 1950s
and perhaps more poignantly the infamous Army-
McCarthy hearings a few years hence (“Are you now
or have you ever been a member of the Communist
Party?”), the Meese Commission paraded around the
country holding hearings—described as “dog and
pony shows” by many—exposing the supposed
“horrors” of pornography. “Victims” would testify
from behind screens about how pornography ruined
their lives.
Despite the fact that the members of the commis-
sion were hand-picked conservatives, certain to stack
the deck against the adult industry, the final report
was not as stinging as had been hoped by Meese and
his minions. Pornography, the commission found,
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