Parental Advisory by Eric D. Nuzum

Author:Eric D. Nuzum
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2001-07-28T04:00:00+00:00

11

“I FOUGHT THE LAW AND THE LAW WON”

Law

One man’s vulgarity may be another’s lyric.

—Supreme Court Justice John M. Harlan

In June of 1991, the sheriff of Butler County, Ohio, decided he’d had enough of the smut being peddled in video stores in his community. He met with the owners of every local video store and informed them that, together, they would review their inventories with the sheriff’s department and negotiate which “adult” titles had to go. The sheriff informed the group that store owners who cooperated would not have to worry about the raids, arrests, and obscenity prosecutions that were being contemplated.

During negotiations, the sheriff told one store owner that the video Doing It Debbie’s Way would have to be removed. The sheriff assumed that the video was part of the infamous series spawned by the film Debbie Does Dallas; however, he was wrong. It was actually an exercise tape featuring “golden oldie” Debbie Reynolds. Save for a group of bouncy, energetic seniors shakin’ their groove things, nothing contained in the videotape would raise an eyebrow. The sheriff held fast, telling the store owner that it was an all-or-nothing prospect: Remove every “questionable tape” or face possible prosecution. After the store owners consulted their attorneys, they decided against resisting the sheriff’s “friendly” suggestions. Quite simply, it would be too expensive and risky to fight the sheriff in the court system.

How does this incident pertain to music censorship? Because it illustrates several severe problems with constitutional protection of free speech and our ability to invoke that protection. Surprisingly, the sheriff’s effort may have been completely legal. Even more surprising, unless store owners had been able to secure the help of a group like the American Civil Liberties Union—or an attorney willing to work for free—it would have been impossible to enforce their constitutional right to sell or rent a Debbie Reynolds exercise tape.

The lesson? Your ability to enforce your civil rights is limited to your access to resources (financial or otherwise) that can be used to protect them.

Back to the sheriff for a moment. How could these “friendly” negotiations and subsequent tape removals be legal? Because of the Supreme Court’s current standard of obscenity: If local “community standards” (in this case, defined by the local sheriff) say something is “obscene,” then it can legally be subject to government censorship. It doesn’t matter if communities down the road, across the state, or anywhere else find the material to be acceptable. If the citizens of Butler County say something is obscene, then the person producing, distributing, or possessing those materials can legally be prosecuted as a felon, even though an identical item is legal elsewhere. This can create quite a problem, particularly with popular music.

If creating “bad” music were illegal, the Spice Girls, Jim Nabors, and Vanilla Ice would have been confined to shackles years ago. However, when music is outlawed, it is not legislated on the basis of its merit; it is restricted on whether or not it is “obscene.” And “obscene” speech is not protected by the Constitution’s free-speech provisions.

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