Baby Where Did Your Porn Go? Asks the Supremes
How Christian Nationalists are attacking the First Amendment in plain sight (Scroll to the end to listen)
How many times have I written about Christian Nationalists’ goal to ban “pornography?”
How many? I’m curious…
Since January 2024, I’ve devoted at least fifteen separate newsletters to the Project 2025 statement:
Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.
Project 2025, page 5
I was the first person screeching about this paragraph long before anyone else thought to make it an issue. Most Americans chuckled and said Ban porn? What hysterical hyperbole. Good luck with that.
And most of those Americans thought I was talking about PornHub and the like when I typed the word pornography. They have no idea that ANYTHING that makes a White Christian Nationalist man think about sex is likely to be deemed pornography.
You know, to protect WCN men from themselves. They cannot WILL NOT control themselves, their raging horny thoughts, or their urge to act on those thoughts with abuse and assault and blame everyone but themselves, so everyone else must be deprived of freedom.
I take no pleasure in pointing out how my near-constant screeching about pornography may finally be proving me a Psychic Oracle of Christian Nationalism and Porn.
Last week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in the Texas case Free Speech Coalition Inc v Paxton. It centers around TX HB 1181 that requires users of porn sites to provide age verification for access. A drivers license, for example. Or the photo page of a passport.
While states like Texas claim these laws seek to protect underage people from accessing porn sites, they effectively banned sites like PornHub in their states. PornHub has pulled out of every state with an age-verification law, impacting ALL porn users, not only young people.
Make no mistake: This case isn’t about protecting children. It is about eroding First Amendment rights and protections surrounding free speech and expression. It will open the door for Christian Nationalists to use contemporary community standards or community values to ban and aggressively prosecute ANYTHING they consider to be obscene.
I don’t have enough time or space to outline what would be on that list. But I’ve written about it extensively at the links below.
The conservative wing of the Supreme Court seems poised to throw out decades of settled precedent. Here’s how the case developed:
The initial judge reviewed HB 1181 and ruled that it likely violated the First Amendment and was therefore unconstitutional. He blocked the law from taking effect.
Texas went to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, their preferred audience for these kinds of cases. It has a Christian Nationalist majority.
Predictably, the Fifth Circuit reversed the trial court’s ruling, allowed HB 1181 to be enforced, and applied a rational-basis review standard rather than settled precedent dating back decades: strict scrutiny. Here’s more about the difference between those two standards from the SCOTUS blog:
The court of appeals applied a less rigorous standard of review, known as rational-basis review, than Ezra had used. That test looks at whether the law advances a legitimate state interest and, if so, whether there is a rational connection between that interest and the law. By contrast, the more rigorous standard of review, known as strict scrutiny, requires the government to show that the law serves a compelling government interest and is narrowly drawn to advance that interest.
In other words, communities that want to ban books because they violate community values or ban activities because they offend community standards would have an easier time using rational-basis review. It allows Christian Nationalists to deem anything obscene as a legitimate state interest and make a rational connection (community values) between that interest and the law.
The conservative Supreme Court justices suggested that how the internet has evolved and the difficulty in protecting children with filters are reasons to revisit, and possibly overturn, the precedent of strict scrutiny. Applying a lower standard of review would undermine the foundations of the fundamental freedoms previously guaranteed within the First Amendment. Justice Barrett even brought up how much porn is accessed through online gaming, another activity I previously warned Christian Nationalists are gunning for.
Bottom line: Any Supreme Court change to this legal precedent will make it easier for Christian Nationalists to ban everything that offends them by calling it porn or obscenity. They will point to rational-basis review, say the offensive thing violates community values, and restrict First Amendment rights for everyone.
When I told everyone to stock up on sex toys, BDSM supplies, smutty novels, dirty images, hard-and-softcore porn films, and more, I hope people listened. For those who didn’t, here’s another nudge: GET THOSE THINGS WHILE YOU CAN.
Other things you can do:
Show up at local city council meetings, school board meetings, and make your voices heard regarding First Amendment rights.
Schedule meetings with local elected officials to introduce yourself as a constituent and explain one-on-one what you expect of them regarding protecting the First Amendment.
If you have the time and energy, run for local elected office and defend the First Amendment and the Constitution.
Call out phrases like community values and contemporary community standards as forcing Christian Nationalist religious dogma on everyone.
REMINDER: INTERVIEW SERIES FOR PAID SUBSCRIBERS
Who: Kristin Battista-Frazee, author of the memoir The Pornographer’s Daughter and her father Anthony Battista, a distributor of the porn film Deep Throat
When: Monday, 27 January 2025
Time: NOON EST
Format: Paid subscribers will receive a Zoom link the morning of the event
We will definitely talk about this Supreme Court development.
Not a paid subscriber? Don’t want to miss this special online event?
Hi Andra. I will be about 15 minutes late on Monday. Is it okay to come in late? I’m reading “The Pornographer’s Daughter.” Things seem to be moving very quickly here. I wonder how soon they will go after lesbians and start putting us in reeducation centers? They know who is married to someone of the same sex. Perhaps I’m catastrophizing, but I know what it’s like to have the government raid your home.
I’m anxious.
Jason Garcia’s substack “seeking rents” highlighted this about the FL Gov budget ask to the legislature. Anyone know of others doing a similar analysis for other states?
DeSantis’s DoEd is asking for:
“Cash for culture wars: The Florida Department of Education wants another $3.8 million to continue developing software meant to make it easier for parents to have books pulled from local public schools. The agency also wants $150,000 to compile and analyze the so-called “intellectual freedom and diversity” survey that Florida Republicans have ordered probing college students about their political beliefs.””