A bill advancing in the Iowa Senate would make it a crime to expose children to an obscene performance. Supporters of the bill say it would strengthen protections for children.
The bill’s definition of an obscene performance includes exposing someone's genitals or engaging in a sex act. Parents could sue someone who exposed their child to an obscene performance up to two years after the event.
Rosemary Adams says the bill language is not clear on what a ‘performance’ is.
“We know that that performance can be paid or unpaid, and it can involve clothing and prosthetics and things like that, but we don't know what a performance is. And so there's an issue over breadth – different juries and different judges are going to be able to make their own individual determinations until it ends up at the Supreme Court. Why wait for that point?”
The bill would also remove measures that protect schools and libraries from claims that educational materials violate obscenity laws.