First Amendment

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Civil

7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and POSNER and ROVNER, Circuit Judges

First Amendment

No.14-3325 Eugene Brown v. Larry Phillips

Treatment facility ban on movies and video games found not related to state’s interest in security and rehabilitation.

“Applying this standard, we conclude that the defendants’ evidence at summary judgment is too feeble to justify the ban on movies and video games. Defendants argue that “common sense” justifies prohibiting sex offenders from viewing sexually explicit materials. See Waterman v. Farmer, 183 F.3d 208, 214–15 (3d Cir. 1999) (although expert testimony and research showed an adequate connection between keeping pornography from incarcerated sex offenders and rehabilitating them, “common sense” also supports the ban). But, as we’ve recently said in other contexts, some data is needed to connect the goal of reducing the recidivism of sex offenders with a ban on their possessing legal adult pornography. See United States v. Taylor, No. 14-3790, 2015 WL 4653148, *4 (7th Cir. Aug. 6, 2015) (overturning a condition of supervised release that prohibited a person convicted of trafficking child pornography from possessing legal adult pornography; no evidence suggested that the legal material contributed to the illegal activity); United States v. Siegel, 753 F.3d 705, 709 (7th Cir. 2014) (observing that allowing a rapist of adult women access to legal pornography can decrease likelihood of recidivism because research shows that viewing legal pornography can be a safe outlet for sexual behavior).”

Vacated and remanded in part

Affirmed in part

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.