Romano Mazzoli: “on yesterday, Thursday, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in Philadelphia reinstated an earlier decision it had…”

“on yesterday, Thursday, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in Philadelphia reinstated an earlier decision it had reached concerning a child pornography case, the now famous Knox child pornography case. In a 40-page opinion, which I have not yet had time to fully read, I am well advised that the court told the Justice Department of the United States that it was off-base in the decisions it reached and in the position that it took concerning this child pornography case. Basically the Justice Department's position, which I objected to in a letter to Janet Reno, the Attorney General of the United States, was basically that the children depicted in these films had to be provocatively posed or lasciviously acting, and had to be unclothed or scantily and revealingly clad or the case of pornography had to be dropped. The court has set that aside, and I think now we are on a better track because if there is any activity which is absolutely heinous and grievous and cries to the Lord for retribution, it is that of people who engage in child pornography and the damage that they cause psychologically and physically to their models and to the people depicted in their degraded materials. Mr. Speaker, I am glad the court reached its position. I hope that becomes the position taken from now on by the U.S. Justice Department.”