Today the Supreme Court heard the first case having to do with animal cruelty in over 15 years, so it's a very exciting day for us over here at the Humane Society....
This Article discusses the basics in today's oral arguments over Robert Stevens and his dogfighting videos. He's appealed his conviction on grounds of free speech, so the court now evaluates the constitutionality of the ban on the production and sale of dogfighting or animal cruelty videos. Are his practices protected by free speech, or will the Court find the display of animal cruelty as discussed in the current legislation in violation of his first amendment rights? Right now, it's not looking good for animal supporters, as most believe the justices will side with free speech. However, some Humane Society staff members who attended this morning's arguments report that Alito seemed to align with the current law, and thus support the animal cruelty cause. If one of the most conservative justices buys our case, then perhaps it may not look too bleak afterall?
The "Crush Videos" discussed in the last paragraph of the article refer to horrible videos produced for an obscure sexual fettish market that depict the crushing of many small animals with womens' high heels. I warn you against googling them or attempting to find them as they are extremely offensive and upsetting to anyone who has even an ounce of sympathy for animals. If the Court overturns the decision and rules the law that bans this sort of material unconstitutional, then I'm afraid more of these types of things will surface.
An additional argugment opposers to the law cite is the "slippery slope" argument for hunters, saying that if these are ruled illegal then hunting videos and "educational" videos shown in science classrooms could also be banned. This is an absurd argument for a million different reasons, especially since hunting isn't illegal, whereas animal cruelty of this kind IS (esp. dogfighting, which has been made illegal or in the process of being made illegal nation wide).
Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading thier decision, as it has major implications for both the animal advocacy world and the future of free speech.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
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1 comment:
Also very interesting since tomorrow we're going to see another case with implications for free speech as well!
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