Top court upholds child-porn act

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that leading someone to believe you have child pornography to show or exchange is a federal crime, brushing aside concerns that the law could apply to mainstream movies that depict adolescent sex, classic literature or even innocent e-mails that describe pictures of grandchildren.

The court, in a 7-2 decision, upheld that the Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today or PROTECT Act, which Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, pushed in 2003, is constitutional.

"The First Amendment is not an altar on which we must sacrifice our children, and Congress must be as relentless in protecting children as are those who would exploit them," Hatch said. "With the PROTECT Act, Congress followed the Supreme Court's guidance and focused on speech that feeds the consumption of child pornography and the exploitation of children. I'm pleased the Supreme Court has now validated this important step in the ongoing effort to protect our children and grandchildren from the monstrous evil perpetrated by pornographers."

Joan Bertin, executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship, said Justice Antonin Scalia's narrow reading of the law in his majority opinion should result in "considerably less damage than it might otherwise have done." But Bertin said aggressive prosecutors still could try to punish people for innocent activity and put them "through a terrible ordeal."

The ruling also upheld part of the law that prohibits possession of child pornography. It replaced an earlier law the court had struck down as unconstitutional.

The new law sets a five-year mandatory prison term for promoting, or

pandering, child pornography. It does not require that someone actually possesses child pornography.

Hatch, former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has joined Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Joseph Biden, D-Del., in introducing the Child Protection Improvement Act of 2008, which would make the pilot program created by the PROTECT Act that allows youth-service organizations to run FBI background checks on prospective volunteers permanent.

"There have been some tragic cases of volunteers who were really wolves in sheep's clothing — criminals who exploited youth organizations to perpetrate crimes on children," Hatch said. "So we need robust laws that will weed these prospective volunteers out before, not after, they harm children."

Opponents have said the law upheld Monday by the court could apply to movies like "Traffic" or "Titanic" that depict adolescent sex or the marketing of other material that may not be pornography.