Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee is facing harsh criticism after he introduced a bill that would outlaw pornography in the United States.
The bill, named the Interstate Obscenity Definition Act (IODA), could effectively decide adult videos are not protected by free speech, proposing "obscenity is not protected speech under the First Amendment and is prohibited from interstate or foreign transmission under U.S. law."
Lee's bill acknowledges "obscenity is difficult to define (let alone prosecute) under the current Supreme Court test for obscenity: the ‘Miller Test,'" a reference to the United States Supreme Court's test for determining whether speech or expression can be labeled obscene, in which case it is not protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and can be prohibited.
The Miller test was developed in the 1973 case Miller v. California.
It has three parts:
- Whether "the average person, applying contemporary community standards", would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest,
- Whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions specifically defined by applicable state law,
- Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
However, Lee's proposal aims to reinstate laws that were first enforced in the Communications Act of 1934 and directly challenges Miller v. California with its declaration that pornography "lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value."
\u201c\ud83d\udea8 @SenMikeLee has introduced a bill that would remove porn's First Amendment protections, and effectively prohibit distribution of adult material in the US. FSC is monitoring the bill, and will continue to do so in the new Congress. https://t.co/ofx2kCsacA\u201d— Free Speech Coalition (@Free Speech Coalition) 1671123462
FSC's announcement prompted many to criticize Lee and his blatant attack against both free speech and sex workers, whose livelihoods would be threatened in the event the bill becomes law.
\u201cThey'll do anything to keep us from earning wages on our own terms.\u201d— \ud83d\udd1eGoatPaws_NSFW\ud83d\udd1e (@\ud83d\udd1eGoatPaws_NSFW\ud83d\udd1e) 1671415231
\u201cIs @SenMikeLee trying to shut down the internet or something? @tedcruz ain't going to be happy about that one, since he's guilty of distribution himself.\ud83d\ude2c\u201d— Lenny Ghoul\ud83d\udeab$8 (@Lenny Ghoul\ud83d\udeab$8) 1671359080
\u201cConservatives like Mike Lee don't care for societal issues but they do want to control your bedroom and private life.\u201d— Estrogen Vampire (@Estrogen Vampire) 1671152216
\u201c@SenMikeLee are you serious? this is why people won't vote republican because of nuts like you. inflation is eating at people's savings & you're worried about americans watching pornography?\u201d— david (@david) 1671238287
\u201cRepublican consultants: \u201cOk folks it looks like the underperformance is because voters thought we were weirdos. We should draw lessons from that.\u201d\n\nMike Lee: \u201cLET\u2019S GO AFTER PORN.\u201d\u201d— Zack Brown (@Zack Brown) 1671163273
\u201cYou ever notice the Republican Party is always the first ones who try to take away your actual free speech rights? I know, it\u2019s wild, but it\u2019s almost like they\u2019re fascist tendencies are getting stronger.\u201d— Matthew Wolfe (@Matthew Wolfe) 1671178171
\u201cGOP really has their fingers on the pulse of Americans' kitchen-table issues of the 1700s\u201d— Beaufighter \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\udf3b (@Beaufighter \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\udf3b) 1671368536
\u201cI\u2019m not sure where Mike Lee gets the idea he can redefine what the First Amendment covers, but good luck with that.\u201d— Scott Howard (@Scott Howard) 1671158728
\u201cThese are the people who are always talking about "freedom" and "liberty" and "free speech"\u201d— Azau (@Azau) 1671150509
Lee—who was raised as a Mormon in the the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), is a major reactionary in Congress, previously joining several Republican Senators in their proposal for a new television rating to warn viewers of LGBTQ+ characters.
In May, the group sent a letter to the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board to request a new rating, saying in recent years "concerning topics of a sexual nature have become aggressively politicized and promoted in children’s programming, including irreversible and harmful experimental treatments for mental disorders like gender dysphoria."
The Senators urged Charles Rivkin, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) who also happens to chair the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board to consider implementing a rating to caution parents about "disturbing content."
They noted the Telecommunications Act of 1996 "enabled greater parental choice in television programming," adding once the law was implemented, it allowed parents to block any "violent, sexual, or other programming that they believe may irrevocably interfere with their child’s emotional and psychological development."