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November 23, 2009
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Ear to the Ground

SCOTUS Ponders Dog-Fighting Videos, ‘Human Sacrifice Channel’

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Posted on Oct 6, 2009
SCOTUS
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Sometimes when making a legal argument, it’s useful to go to hyperbolic extremes to illustrate the ideological flaws or possible outcomes associated with a potential ruling, which is why the conversation in the United States Supreme Court on Tuesday ranged from dog-fighting videos to a (hypothetical) cable channel for human sacrifice enthusiasts.  —KA

The Los Angeles Times:

Justice Antonin Scalia, an avid hunter, insisted the 1st Amendment did not allow the government to limit speech and expression, unless it involved sex or obscenity.

“It’s not up to the government to tell us what are our worst instincts,” said Scalia. He repeatedly cited German dictator Adolf Hitler and his policies of extermination. Scalia asked, “Can you keep him off the screen” just because his deeds were vile?

But Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. garnered the attention of his colleagues with a series of questions on whether videos portraying humans being killed would be protected as free speech.

Alito said there may well be a “pay-per-view” market for programs made outside the United States, so there would be no criminal jurisdiction here, that showed real people being killed. He called it the “Human Sacrifice Channel” and wondered aloud whether Congress could outlaw the showing of such programs in this country.

What about “snuff films,” asked Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

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By Random Items, October 7 at 10:01 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Human Sacrifice Channel eww that is sick and depraved.
Where can I invest? It sounds like money in the bank.

In the end you can’t legislate or adjudicate morality.

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By MarthaA, October 6 at 11:28 pm #

Perhaps the Humane Society can give them a clue.

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By SuGee, October 6 at 5:40 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Anyone who thinks that dog abuse(to put it lightly) is protected by the 2nd ammendment is ludicrious.  but then our current Supreme Court pretty much fits that description, LOL.

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By Jim Yell, October 6 at 5:02 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

It is shocking that people would not understand that watching a snuff movie would make the viewer an accomplice to murder and by extension I think it outrageous that someone would think watching a movie with gross mistreatment of animals is not in the same classification.

Just being an adult doesn’t give a person the right to inflict pain on other living creatures for supposed entertainment purposes. If that is a persons idea of entertainment than that person has a huge flaw in their person, their values and their humanity. Make no mistake, watching such a performance knowingly is the same as doing the act.

It is disgusting and it should be illegal.

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