Before I leave the Big Apple, a leader in today’s New York Times drew my attention to this US Supreme Court case in which a federal law on child pornography has been upheld as constitutional.
The Times clearly thinks the judgment goes too far in pandering to child protection, and risks limiting free speech. I’ll let you make up your own mind; but would simply say that most Europeans would I think find it surprising that the right to free speech can be invoked to protect to any extent the trade in sexual interest in children. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg would certainly, in my view, uphold a national law like this as consistent with the article 10 freedom of expression.
A little background is useful in understanding the implications of the Williams decision. It is fair to say that the United States is unparalleled among the nations of the world in its tolerance of speech. From the instant it is uttered, virtually all speech is presumed to be protected by the First Amendment.
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hesslei…
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