Published: July 05, 2008 06:08 pm            

Adult bookstore law overturned, expected to come back next year

Randy Smith’s bookshelves at Destinations Booksellers, in New Albany, are filled with a variety of works aimed at the various audiences in the area.

Those very choices, which include romance and non-fiction books, would have required Smith pay a fee to register as a business selling sexually explicit material, under a law that passed the last General Assembly.

On the day the law took effect — July 1 — a federal judge overturned it, ruling it was too broad.

Smith said he had no intention of complying with the law, even though that could qualify as a Class B misdemeanor.

“I was ready to go to jail on principle,” Smith said.

Smith said under the law some of his romantic Christian fiction novels and even The Bible may have been considered explicit, requiring him to pay the $250 registration fee.

The bill was supported by local Representatives Bill Cochran, Steven Stemler, Paul Robertson and Senators Connie Sipes, James Lewis and Richard Young. It was introduced and authored by Rep. Terry Goodin, from Crothersville.

Goodin talked with the Associated Press, saying he might take this issue back to lawmakers at the 2009 session for revision.

“I’ve got pencil in hand,” he was quoted as saying. “I’m ready to go. I’m not going to let this sleeping doe lie.”

He said the idea behind the law was to protect communities with weak zoning laws from having adult bookstores coming in.

However, Smith said the only thing this law does is limit the First Amendment. Smith said Goodin’s welcome to try to bring the bill back to the table.

“I think it’s foolish and I hope his constituents toss him out on his butt,” Smith said. “If they knew what he was doing to their constitution, they would demand an answer as to why he would want to obliterate free expression in this country.”

American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression fought to have the law overturned.

“We’re relieved,” Chris Finan, president of ABFFE, said of the ruling. “Our hope in going forward is the legislature will be far more careful in protecting First Amendment rights when they consider whatever [Goodin] proposes.

“We will certainly be watching very carefully.”

Because this time, Attorney General Steve Carter is offering his office’s assistance to help legislators revise the bill’s language if they choose to pursue it again.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.

        

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