High court weighs child porn

WASHINGTON – Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hasn’t seen the movie “Traffic,” but she’s apparently familiar with the racier “Lolita.” Justice Stephen Breyer says it’s not uncommon for adolescent boys to share lurid pictures with one another.

Those were among the revelations Tuesday as the nation’s highest court grappled with the question of whether Congress – in seeking to stamp out child pornography on the Internet – went too far by making it a federal crime to knowingly advertise, promote or distribute material even if it only purports to show child pornography.

The case originated out of Miami with the April 2004 arrest of former Metro-Dade police Sgt. Michael Williams, who’s now doing 60 months in federal prison in Texas for possession of child pornography. First Amendment advocates say the case could chill free expression, including critiques of racy movies.

The justices appeared skeptical of those warnings, though they pushed the Bush administration to define the boundaries: Ginsburg asked whether the language in the legislation would permit the prosecution of someone who said a “film depicts a 12-year-old child as having sexual relations with an old man.”

“It could be conceived as child pornography, but it’s a truthful statement about ‘Lolita,’ is it not?” Ginsburg said.

U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement rejected suggestions that the law is so broad that it would encompass such activities as writing about movies or photography or filming mainstream motion pictures.

“The material we are talking about is unlawful even to possess,” Clement said, later adding, “If you’re taking a movie like ‘Traffic’ or ‘American Beauty,’ which is not child pornography, and you’re simply truthfully promoting it, you have nothing to worry about with this statute.”

An appeals court in 2006 reversed Williams’ conviction for promoting child pornography, saying the 2003 law was “unconstitutionally overbroad.”

The Bush administration and anti-pornography groups, however, say the measure is key to fighting child abuse because offers to buy or share illicit material “help drive the market for child porn” even when no pornography exists.