Posted by mikezillion at February 4th, 2007

Well, I just finished my second year of Law School, so I was well prepared to read an article by Mark Kernes on AVN this morning. Prepared logically, but perhaps not emotionally. It would be easy to dismiss this article as a defense of a horrible, nasty person who pimped out a fourteen year old girl until she had to be hospitalized with AIDS. That’s really not what the article was about. The point of the article is that this pimp was indicted in Federal court, even though his actions all took place within the state of Florida. The justification for escalating this to Federal court was that the condoms, cell phones, and hotels used in the activities were all part of inter-state commerce. As Mr. Kernes points out, although hiring performers for adult entertainment purposes is explicitly legal in California, what porn producer in any state doesn’t make use of condoms, cell phones, and hotels? Federal investigators used similar wording to justify attacking medical marijuana facilities in California after the state legalized medial marijuana. Whether or not you endorse the use and sale of medical marijuana, and even though we can all agree that pimping out a fourteen year old girl is abominable, this sets a precedent for federal prosecution of in-state activities which should raise everyone’s red flags.