In testimony this morning before the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on Department of Justice (DOJ) Oversight, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that his agency will continue conducting "targeted, efficient" prosecutions of adult material, citing the government's recent victory in the Max Hardcore case in Tampa, Fla. as justification for continuing its attempted porn purge.
Mukasey spoke in answer to a question from reliably conservative Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Ut.), who asked, "General Mukasey, let me start my questions by following up on a topic I raised at your confirmation hearing last October. At that time, I described the concern of many that in enforcing the obscenity laws, the Justice Department is targeting too narrow a range of obscene material. The most extreme material may make a conviction more likely, but that conviction has little impact on the overall obscenity industry, and as I said then, I believe that the strategy is misguided. Now, you agreed personally to review and consider changing the strategy. Now, I hope you've had an opportunity to conduct that review and that you will share your conclusions with the committee if you can."
Mukasey responded, "I think what we try to do is to bring those cases that we can win, and those cases that are going to have the greatest impact on removing obscene materials which degrade our society and depict behavior that we think is disgraceful. We've done that; we had a recent conviction in Tampa of a large-scale producer of this kind of material. We want to do it in a targeted, efficient way. We want to do it in a way that will have the most effect. What we don't want to do is - as you know, there's a tolerance for this in the courts. We don't want to bring prosecutions that will have the effect essentially of making more tolerated the kind of material that we think ought to be stamped out. We pick our targets carefully; we pick them so as to have the greatest effect and we bring vigorous prosecutions."
Mukasey spoke in answer to a question from reliably conservative Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Ut.), who asked, "General Mukasey, let me start my questions by following up on a topic I raised at your confirmation hearing last October. At that time, I described the concern of many that in enforcing the obscenity laws, the Justice Department is targeting too narrow a range of obscene material. The most extreme material may make a conviction more likely, but that conviction has little impact on the overall obscenity industry, and as I said then, I believe that the strategy is misguided. Now, you agreed personally to review and consider changing the strategy. Now, I hope you've had an opportunity to conduct that review and that you will share your conclusions with the committee if you can."
Mukasey responded, "I think what we try to do is to bring those cases that we can win, and those cases that are going to have the greatest impact on removing obscene materials which degrade our society and depict behavior that we think is disgraceful. We've done that; we had a recent conviction in Tampa of a large-scale producer of this kind of material. We want to do it in a targeted, efficient way. We want to do it in a way that will have the most effect. What we don't want to do is - as you know, there's a tolerance for this in the courts. We don't want to bring prosecutions that will have the effect essentially of making more tolerated the kind of material that we think ought to be stamped out. We pick our targets carefully; we pick them so as to have the greatest effect and we bring vigorous prosecutions."
Can this administration leave any faster?
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