The War on Porn Regular Updates about the Assault on The Adult Industry
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Ah, Arizona – my home state. Famous for the geological splendor of the Grand Canyon, the ancient beauty of the Petrified Forest, the marvel of engineering that is the Hoover Dam – and some of the dumbest legislative proposals ever to see the light of day.
Right about seven years ago, an Arizona State Senator proposed to tax porn to fund the construction of a wall on our southern border. Thankfully, that bill died on the vine, deemed a non-starter even by a legislature that once seriously toyed with the notion of making it illegal to “offend or annoy” people using an “electronic or digital device.”
Here’s hoping that HB 2900, one of the latest brain farts to emanate from the state’s socially conservative corner, meets the same fate as some of its even dumber predecessors, never making it to the floor for a full vote. Because, while I’d like to say I’m confident the bill would wither under court scrutiny if it made it all the way to being signed by the state’s current governor (a doubtful proposition, itself), who the hell knows anymore?
The ‘good news’ about HB 2900, if there is any, is that the bill at least wouldn’t make it a crime punishable by prison time to make or sell porn in the state. It would merely make it prohibitively expensive to do so and potentially ruinous for any business charged with having the temerity to sell porn to those who wish to watch it, through its onerous fines of up to $10,000 per day (and $10,000 per instance).
Oh, and it’s not just the attorney general who could bring action against those who run afoul of the law; the state’s private citizens could get in on the act, as well. I can just imagine how enthusiastic the state’s judiciary must be about the prospect of hearing dozens of lawsuits with titles like Johnson v. Hustler or Peters v. Pornhub because clearly these judges have nothing better or more important to do than sit in a courtroom and hear testimony about how pornographers are ruining the state almost as surely as the undocumented immigrants who handle everyone’s landscaping and roofing needs.
Look, I get it: A lot of people in Arizona (and elsewhere) don’t approve of porn and several of those people are highly religious and socially conservative folks who also happen to hold seats in the state’s legislature. I happen to be an atheist, but you don’t see me going around advocating for suing people for proselytizing, or banning sale of the Bible, or (shudder) running for office so I can attempt to impose my libertine values on the rest of my fellow citizens under the color of state law.
As I mentioned earlier, one small silver lining in the heaping pile of shitty cloud that is HB 2900 is this bit of limiting construction: “This section does not…Impose civil liability on an individual solely for the private possession, private viewing or private receipt of pornography.” But this stipulation raises questions for me, too.
If porn is so awful, morally ruinous and threatening that legislature must take measures to dissuade businesses from making and selling porn in Arizona, why would the legislature allow people to freely possess and view it? Or, to position the same sort of question in reverse, if it’s OK to posses and watch porn, why are this bill’s sponsors so eager to punish the people who make it possible for the state’s citizens to possess and view it?
Also, if this bill is limited to “commercial entities,” as it appears to be, does that mean I can film and distribute porn in Arizona, so long as I don’t charge anything for my product? Can I now finally fulfill my lifelong dream of being a mass porn donor?
Ideally, I will never have occasion to learn the answers to any of the above questions because HB 2900 quietly slips into the dustbin of history, alongside its wall-funding and anti-annoyance predecessors. I suppose we’ll know soon enough, as the Arizona legislature will close its current session sometime this summer.
