Pro Porn Attorney is now U.S.
Deputy Attorney General
Yes.... One that should be on our side for sexual freedoms and First Amendment
Rights we lack that most of the world enjoys. Hopefully his liberal views on
porn and women's rights carry over into sexwork. But Attorney General Holder is
questionable based on his anti adult freedom views from 10 years ago.
The new Deputy Attorney General, David Ogden, represented Playboy Enterprises in
multiple cases, Penthouse Magazine, the ACLU, and the largest distributor of
hard-core pornography videos.
He also fights for the women's right to choose (another freedom trying to be
taken away from women by Republican conservatives) and wrote an amicus brief for
the Supreme Court arguing against the anti-choice movement of how terrible
emotionally harmed women who have abortions feel. He writes, "In sum, it is
grossly misleading to tell a woman that abortion imposes possible detrimental
psychological effects when the risks are negligible in most cases, when the
evidence shows that she is more likely to experience feelings of relief and
happiness, and when child-birth and child-rearing or adoption may pose
concomitant (if not greater) risks or adverse psychological effects..."
This puts the 2nd in command at Justice favoring adult freedoms the exact
opposite of the Bush anti freedom Justice Dept.
More detailed article about Ogden and the Religious Right trying to make it
about child porn and child trafficking which Ogden is expressly against related
to children. But of course the Republican conservatives attack regardless of
truth:
David Steinberg says in SFGate.com:
Perhaps the most encouraging piece of news (for those of us in the sex-positive
camp) has been Obama's nomination, and the subsequent decisive Senate
confirmation, of David Ogden as Deputy Attorney General, the No. 2 man in the
Justice Department. As the Justice Department's chief operating officer, Ogden
will be responsible for resolving conflicts between U.S. attorneys in
high-profile cases, and thus will have much to say about the implementation of
DOJ policy in cases involving such issues as obscenity, abortion, and LGBT
rights.
Ogden, who was Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division in the Clinton
Administration, and served as chief of staff for Attorney General Janet Reno,
has since been a partner at WilmerHale, an influential Washington law firm,
where he has litigated a number of important First Amendment cases involving
distribution of sex-related material.
He represented the American Library Association in its fight to keep the Bush
Administration from imposing Internet filtering on libraries across the nation.
He represented the American Council for the Blind in its suit to have Playboy
Magazine included among publications to be translated into Braille by the
Library of Congress. He supported sex educator/entrepreneur Phil Harvey in his
long, eventually successful, suit overturning the DOJ policy of bankrupting sex
entrepreneurs by forcing them to defend themselves against suits in multiple
states simultaneously. And he supported the ACLU in its successful suit which
resulted in the Supreme Court declaring unconstitutional core provisions of the
1998 Child Online Protective Act (COPA) that would have put severe restrictions
on Internet sexual content.
While these positions place Ogden squarely in defense of basic First Amendment
rights, none of them is radical except, perhaps, in contrast to the radically
conservative positions taken by the DOJ under George Bush.
Significantly, Ogden's nomination gained the endorsement of a broad range of
far-from-radical organizations, including the National District Attorneys
Association, the National Association of Police Officers, the Fraternal Order of
Police, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Responding to charges during his confirmation hearings that he would be soft on
child pornography, Ogden testified decisively that he considered child
pornography to be "abhorrent," and reminded Senators that he had "vigorously
defended the constitutionality of child pornography statutes during my tenure...
in the Clinton administration."
Nevertheless, Ogden's First Amendment defenses were sufficient to make him a
target for the radical right, which labeled him a "pro-pornography zealot," as
well as attacking him for his positions on other sex-related issues, including
being what one critic called a supporter of "the whole package of the homosexual
agenda."
Ogden's nomination became a rallying cry for the anti-sexual right, the first
test of their clout with the new Administration, and the new Congress.
"Nominating David Ogden for such a high position in the Justice Department
raises questions about whether the new President means business about curbing
sexual trafficking in women and children and other sexual exploitation of
children and about standing up for policies that value families," declared
Robert Peters, president of the anti-pornography organization Morality in Media.
"It would be difficult to find a person less desirable to be second in command
at the nation's top law enforcement agency," agreed Janice Shaw Crouse of the
Beverly LaHaye Institute. She called "nightmarish" not only Ogden's positions
regarding the distribution of sexual material, but also his belief that
consenting adults should be able to engage in phone sex if they so choose, his
arguments "that judges [should] consider the [research findings of the] social
sciences" when deliberating rulings in sex-related cases, his representation of
"professional psychological associations presenting positive arguments for 'gay'
parenting, [and] 'gays' in the military," and his opposition to parental and
spousal notification and waiting period requirements for women who choose to
have abortions.
Despite a strident effort to rally opposition to Ogden's confirmation, including
reported threats by the Family Research Council to target any Republican
Senators who voted for him, Ogden was confirmed by a 65-28 Senate vote on March
12.
Dave notes that less is known about current position of Attorney General Eric
Holder. Ten years ago he was more conservative and related to porn after the
Child Protection Act was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court said he
wanted to find other ways to restrict sexual materials. The Child Protection Act
would have required most any website with "dirty pictures" to have to verify the
age via credit card or other means that everyone was over age 18 or face
criminal charges. The Supreme Court said this was too broad since it restricted
adult access by unreasonable requirements.
Regarding prostitution I find, "Holder, yet another ex-Clintonite, was Clinton’s
Deputy Attorney General and US Attorney General for the Washington DC area. He
is an extreme drug warrior who believes that harsher and longer sentences should
be enacted for minor crimes such as marijuana use and prostitution."
And sadly
Holder is a very disappointing choice for Attorney General. He just doesn't seem
to share any modern sense that the worldwide nature of the Internet should not
be subject to local community laws. And the notion of judge shopping, courtroom
shopping, to find the most conservative possible community in some Southern
jurisdiction in a Bible Belt community to decide what persons in New York, Los
Angeles or San Francisco may view is outrageous. Holder just doesn't seem to
value the separation of church and state any higher than the current religious
right wackos who are plentiful in the Bush Justice Department is appalling. The
religious right has used the Bush Justice Department to advance it's radical
social and cultural agenda, and Eric Holder holds little promise of reversing
this abuse of government power and spending of taxpayer money to advance a
religious agenda.
Civil liberties supporters have every right to be very disappointed in this
awful choice for Attorney General. Government has no legitimate role in using
taxpayer dollars to promote a religious agenda. And most existing obscenity laws
that involve the distribution of sometimes outrageous or tasteless material
between consenting adults is clearly unconstitutional and often just an attempt
by religion to enforce their views of culture on the society at large.
Government has no legitimate role legislating good taste in entertainment. -
Source wizbangblue post by Paul Hooson
Regarding AG Holder, David Steinberg says, "That was ten years ago, and what one
advocates in the Age of Obama may well be quite different from what was
expedient back then. How much Holder's positions on obscenity and other sexual
issues were the basis for his nomination, and how much they were secondary to
other matters, is anyone's guess -- as is how much room Obama will give Holder
to define DOJ policy on sex, and how much he will set those policies himself."