In an 8-1 opinion from Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling striking down a federal law that bans images of animal cruelty. The Court’s opinion says the law is “substantially overbroad, and therefore unvalid under the First Amendment.”
From the Opinion:
“While the prohibition of animal cruelty has a long history in American law, there is no evidence of a similar tradition prohibiting depictions of such cruelty.”
CJ Roberts says the law which made it a crime to create, sale, possess depictions of animal cruelty including dog fighting and “crush” videos “creates a criminal prohibition of alarming breadth.”
Today’s ruling is a huge victory for First Amendment advocates. To that end Chief Justice Roberts says the First Amendment “reflects a judgment by the American people that the benefits of its restrictions on the Government outweigh the costs.”
Justice Samuel Alito was the only dissenter.
Alito says today’s ruling “has the practical effect of legalizing the sale of such videos and is thus likely to spur a resumption of their production….”