What a marvelous idea! Why not let parents sue folks in federal court for disseminating material “harmful to minors”?
Now, most people might think that’s something that the police would want to step into. I mean, harming minors, good heavens! But, see, that’s the brilliance of this idea! There’s only so many police, but there are zillions of parents! And police have all sorts of other distractions, like crime and criminals and stuff, but surely there are some busy-body parents who want to sue! And, of course, the police and the DA have to worry about tripe like “beyond a reasonable doubt,” whereas law suits only require a “preponderance of the evidence.”
Oh, yeah, there’s that whole state “censorship” worry and the Bill of Rights and the like. That tends to restrain the criminal courts, but, hey, private citizens filing suits? Piece o’ cake!
And — here’s the kicker — since it lets folks sue everyone along the publishing chain — from publishers to distributors to retailers to creators — it can have a massive chilling effect, as everyone along that chain will be extra-special cautious about churning out anything that anybody might possibly consider capable of causing “suffer personal or emotional injury or injury to mental or moral welfare.”
I mean, the “moral welfare” clause alone is priceless! Woo-hoo!
Never mind all those worry-warts at places like the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund:
“This bill is troubling on several levels,” explains CBLDF Director Charles Brownstein. “It appears to allow for civil actions against any, or every, member of the dissemination food chain, from the retailer to the distributor to the publisher, of work that an individual parent may object to. So any citizen, using their own sense of what is obscene or harmful to minors, can bring suit. Considering that comics still suffer the cultural and legal stigma of being perceived as a juvenile medium, this bill could become a dangerous weapon in the hands of an individual who walks into a comic book store and is shocked to find that comics offer much more than Archie and Superman.”
Well, if they do, they shouldn’t. And this law will see to that, you betcha. After all, if it’s a comic book, it’s clearly designed for little tykes to read — regardless of where it’s racked, or what it says on the cover. Why, the whole idea of a “mature adult” reading a comic book is absurd! It’s all obviously a plot to warp our children and pollute our precious bodily fluids. I think I saw something on the 700 Club about that the other night …
Anyway, huzzah for HB 4239! Huzzah for clogging our federal courts with more law suits! Huzzah for promoting a clean and wholesome society, even if we have to scare everyone into it! Huzzah!
(via BoingBoing)