[1] WASHINGTON (BP)–Pornographic materials may not be sold or rented at United States military facilities throughout the world as a result of a Supreme Court announcement on the last day of its 1997-98 term.
The high court’s refusal to review a decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals means a 1996 law known in its original form as the Military Honor and Decency Act will go into effect. The measure, which was passed as an amendment to the National Security Authorization Act, prohibits the sale and rental of sexually explicit materials at Department of Defense facilities, including commissaries, exchanges and ship stores.
A federal judge in New York ruled the law unconstitutional in early 1997 after Penthouse, a popular sexually explicit magazine, filed suit. In November, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court ruling but did not enforce its opinion while waiting for the Supreme Court to decide whether to review it. The high court’s refusal lifted the injunction.
“This is a huge victory for the military and women,” said Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R.-Md., in a written statement after the June 26 announcement.
“It will go a long way to improving the military’s ability to maintain order, discipline and unit cohesion, including respect for our women in uniform,” said Bartlett, chief sponsor of the legislation. “This stuff is offensive and demeaning to women who volunteer to serve in the military and to military families. It’s a shame we even needed a law so that the military could become a responsible employer.”
Army and Air Force stores sell $12.6 million worth of nearly 220 different adult magazines each year, Bartlett’s office said in 1997, citing Larry Phillips, a spokesman for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service. Military commissaries and exchanges are owned and operated by the federal government.
The law does not prevent members of the military from possessing sexually explicit material, subscribing to it or purchasing it off base or by mail, telephone or computer.
The law’s definition of sexually explicit material consists of a video, film, audio recording or periodical the “dominant theme of which depicts or describes nudity, including sexual or excretory activities or organs, in a lascivious way.”