Sen.

United States Senate
Washington, D.C.

Dear Senator:

    I am writing to you as a constituent to inform you of my views
regarding S.1521, the most recent anti-pornography bill. It is my
hope that the views of people such as myself will be sufficient to
urge you to oppose the bill.

    S. 1521 permits the imposition of punishment--rendering the
publishers of work deemed "pornographic" subject to paying damages
for the mere publication of written or visual materials-- on a
civil scale, penalizing those who speak on the wholly unproven
theory that this kind of speech "causes" rape. Such punishment for
speech is simply wrong, for several reasons:

    1)It is unconstitutional. Even though the bill is limited to
speech which would fall into the class of speech called obscene,
currently held to be outside of the First Amendment's protection,
the Supreme Court has recently held that it is improper to punish
even constitutionally unprotected speech because of its viewpoint.
R.A.V.v. City of St. Paul. By choosing some "obscene" speech as fit
for punishment while leaving the rest alone, this bill violates the
Court's ruling in RAV--the only reason the speech is punished is
because the image of sexuality it portrays, not because it is
obscene.

    2) Even if it were constitutional, it goes against the
foundation of America's system of government: that people are free
to choose between conflicting ideas. By saying that pornography
"causes" rape, the bill denies the free will of each and every
citizen, diminishing us to the level of idiots who do whatever we
are told is good by some publisher. By denying the ability of
people to choose, this bill denies the only possible ground for a
right to choose how to live our own lives.

    3) The bill negates the basic principle that each person is
responsible for his or her actions, but not for someone else's. By
saying that ideas in porn may be abused by the audience member who
decides to rape, the stage is set for full censorship. If any
speaker is liable for the harm done by those who abuse his or her
ideas, who will be free to speak?  Porn is no different from any
other kind of entertainment that way -- murderers often imitate TV.
Is Matlock the next to go?

I sincerely urge you to vote against this dangerous bill.

Yours truly,