A dose of sanity has squashed an idiotic Indiana law that would have punished bookstores, libraries and other innocuous entities to placate a bunch of prudes. I’m no fan of porn, but to require anyone who sells “sexually explicit” material (define that for me, wouldya?) to register with the state and to pay a fee for the right to sell said “sexually explicit” material is dumber than dumb.

Judge Sarah Evans Barker interpreted the law to apply to libraries, museums (Picasso Porn!!), video shops and little old ladies selling their husbands’ old Playboys in a garage sale. Enough, she said.

Indiana has a bit of a reputation of being “wholesome” (prudish) and simple (unsophisticated) — being from Ohio, I should talk! But that law was just plain stupid. And who decides what is “sexually explicit”? Is a pamphlet illustrating a breast self-examination “sexuall explicit”?

I betcha there are people out there in Hoosier country who would say yes. Who put them in charge? Don’t get me started …

For the A&P report, CLICK HERE.

Dave Wilson is the Grand Pooh-Bah of Editorial Content at DelMio.com, a site developed by SunLit Communications LLC. He also is at times janitor, chauffeur, chief cook and bottle washer. Once upon a time he was a metro editor and copy editor at the Akron Beacon Journal. Send love letters and trash talk to dave.wilson@delmio.com. Or post a comment. Whatever.

Citing it as too broad, a federal judge has thrown out an Indiana law that was about to take effect requiring bookstores and other retailers to register with the state and pay a $250 fee if they want to sell sexually explicit material. The Indianapolis Museum of Art was among the plaintiffs who sued to block enforcement of the law.
”A romance novel sold at a drugstore, a magazine offering sex advice in a grocery store checkout line, an R-rated DVD sold by a video rental shop, a collection of old Playboy magazines sold by a widow at a garage sale … would appear to necessitate registration under the statute,” wrote U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker wrote. Equally problematic is discerning exactly what constitutes “sexually explicit.”
The art museum’s CEO, Maxwell Anderson, called the ruling a victory for the First Amendment.

For more on the case, CLICK HERE.