The ACLU filed suit today to attack an Indiana law that requires book stores to register with the state and pay a fee if they sell sexually explicit materials. From an Indy Star report:
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and attorneys for several national organizations representing booksellers filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court today seeking an injunction barring enforcement of a new state law which requires businesses that sell sexually explicit material to register with the state.I know what you're thinking- this is America, and banning speech is patently un-American. You're right! This case has enormous merit, and is exactly the sort of law an organization that defends civil liberties should attack. It's that I find their method boring.
The new law, approved earlier this year by the General Assembly, takes effect July 1.
The lawsuit names the prosecutors of Indiana's 92 counties as defendants because they are responsible for enforcing the law. The law covers new businesses and existing businesses that move to a new location after June 30.
The ACLU is made up of lawyers, so they think and act like lawyers. They sue. Not me. I think one of the best ways to get rid of bad law is to force compliance.
Instead of naming all 92 prosecutors as defendents, the ACLU should have pressed them all to prosecute every new or relocated religious book store that has the Bible on its' shelves, or the Chirstian 'birds & the bees' manual for parents. Make them register with the state and let them be labeled 'pronographer' or 'smut peddler'. Let these very innocent and innocuous examples be prosecuted to the full, embarassing extent of the law. See if they don't rush to have the law repealed. See if the prudes in the Statehouse aren't eaten alive by the very people they tried to pander to with this stupid, offensive law.
On another note, it sure makes me glad that our state reps and state senators find time to pass this law, yet fail to provide real, non-shell-game tax relief. Complete bastards.
2 comments:
This, is a very good idea. And, I agree with everthing about your conclusion about the legislature, except for one thing. I don't think they are "complete" bastards.
That intimates that they have successfully followed through on something. I prefer to think of them as incomplete bastards, because they are not competent enough (as a body) to finish any job right.
Point taken!
Post a Comment