L.A.'s unenforceable porn condom law: The prophylactic police reach a 'stalemate' in the courts, but regulators aren't giving up yet.

• Author: Brown, Elizabeth Nolan
• Position: California

Good news for Americans with a fetish for safety goggles: If certain California activists get their way, we could be seeing a lot more of them in erotic videos, along with more condoms and dental dams. While Los Angeles County and the porn industry are at a legal deadlock over a county condom requirement, barrier protection in porn is now set for a statewide vote in November.

The L.A. law, known as "Measure B," was approved by voters in 2012 and has been embroiled in legal challenges ever since. Constitutional lawyer Paul Cambria Jr. and his colleagues are representing porn giant Vivid Entertainment in its lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Health Department.

Measure B's two main mandates are that porn performers must wear condoms for scenes involving sexual intercourse and that adult filmmakers must apply for public health permits. Sold by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) as a way to protect porn actors from HIV, the adult film industry says it's both unnecessary-current industry screening standards for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases work just fine--and unconstitutional.

Both a U.S. district court and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Vivid's argument that the condom law violates the First Amendment. "We agree with the district court," wrote appeals Judge Susan P. Graber in December 2014, that "whatever unique message plaintiffs might intend to convey by depicting condomless sex, it is unlikely that viewers of adult films will understand that message."

But the decision wasn't all bad news for the industry. Graber affirmed the lower court's choice to enjoin several key provisions of Measure B, including stipulations that non-compliant production companies could have their permits taken away and a provision related to searches and seizures. "Given that adult filming could occur almost anywhere, Measure B would seem to authorize a health officer to enter and search any part of a private home in the middle of the night, because he suspects violations are occurring," District Judge Dean Pregerson wrote in his decision. "This is unconstitutional because it is akin to a general warrant."

So what does that mean for the measure? While "the condom requirement is still there, there's no mechanism there to either grant or take away a permit or whatever," explained Cambria during a January 20 panel discussion at Adult Video News' 2016 Adult Entertainment Expo, the industry's annual trade show and awards ceremony. "It's a...