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Arizona’s so-called "revenge porn" law is now facing a challenge in court.
The suit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, along with Bookman's Entertainment Exchange and the National Press Photographers Association. The plaintiffs argued the law violates free speech and does not exempt nude images that are historical or newsworthy.
The law, which took effect in July, makes it a felony to publish nude photos of a person without their consent.
Shawn Feeney, president of Bookman’s Entertainment Exchange, said the law could be used to make the sale of art books or newspapers with nude images illegal.
“The law is drafted to, upon close reading, to effectively make it potentially illegal to sell any nude image without proven consent by the subject of the photograph," he said. "This, from our perspective, could include anything from historic nudes by Edward Weston to nude photographs, the prisoners of Abu Ghraib, for example."
Feeney said it wasn’t until after the law passed that he became concerned that Bookman’s could be prosecuted for selling material containing such images.
State Rep. J.D. Mesnard of Chandler, one of the law’s sponsors, disagrees.
“These examples that the ACLU and others bring up are really not a good reading of the bill and no prosecutor is going to go after them," he said. "They’re bringing up hypotheticals to try and shoot a bill down that is dealing with problems that are not hypothetical, that actually exist."
In a statement, the ACLU said the law violates free speech rights, but Mesnard contends the law’s intent is apparent.
“It’s pretty clear a person has to intentionally do it, but they also have to know that a person did not give consent," he said. "We softened the language removing things requiring written consent and earlier drafts of the bill, so where we ended up is a pretty solid bill and a lot of the fears that are being brought up are either based on bizarre readings of the bill or even readings of an earlier version that doesn’t even exist anymore.”
The case was filed in federal court.
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