Sen. Orrin Hatch irate over Obama's pornography policy

Sen. Orrin Hatch is up in arms over the Obama administration's perceived failure to enforce obscenity laws against the porn industry.

After Attorney General Eric Holder recently shut down the Obscenity Prosecution Task Force, Hatch derided the move Friday in a statement to Politico.

"Attorney General Holder told the Judiciary Committee last year that this task force was the centerpiece of the strategy to combat adult obscenity," Hatch told Politico. "Rather than initiate a single new case since President Obama took office, however, the only development in this area has been the dismantling of the task force. As the toxic waste of obscenity continues to spread and harm everyone it touches, it appears the Obama administration is giving up without a fight."

The contention over Holder's decision to end the Obscenity Prosecution Task Force comes less than two weeks after Hatch circulated a letter signed by 42 U.S. Senators and addressed to Holder that, per CBS News, "calls on the Department of Justice to 'vigorously' enforce federal obscenity laws 'against major commercial distributors of hardcore adult pornography.'"

In the wake of that letter, a flurry of op-ed articles and columns about obscenity prosecutions and the porn industry materialized earlier this month. Hatch articulated his own position in a Deseret News piece, Politico's Josh Gerstein outlined some of the potential obstacles to prosecuting large-scale pornography distributors and Time's Michael Scherer mocked politicians for choosing to focus on obscenity laws.

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