Is It Sensible To Exclude Pornography From Laws Against Prostitution?
Justice Goodman may be correct about the statute in question, although the statutory language does not help his position. New York Penal Law defines a prostitute as a person “who engages or agrees or offers to engage in sexual conduct with another person in return for a fee.” A pornographic actor does just that: Like a more typical prostitute, he or she engages in sex in return for a fee. Still, as Justice Goodman points out, traditional interpretations of the word “prostitute” narrow the literal definition to exempt pornography. But that leads to another question: Does the pornography exemption make sense? Stated differently, the District Attorney’s office has perhaps correctly divined the legislative intent behind the statute at issue, but there might nonetheless be something fundamentally unfair about exempting distributors of nonobscene pornography from the vice laws. To appreciate the unfairness, let us examine some of the arguments for this distinction. Free Speech: One Possible
