Porn pause: obscene investigations.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: Citings - Brief article

ORRIN HATCH is unhappy about the Obama administration's approach to obscenity prosecutions. In April the Utah Republican and 41 of his fellow senators sent Attorney General Eric Holder a letter urging him "vigorously to enforce federal obscenity laws against major commercial distributors of hardcore adult pornography"

Ten days later, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Welch replied with a letter suggesthag that the Justice Department has different priorities. Welch wrote that "the Department has focused its limited investigative and prosecutorial resources on the most egregious cases, particularly those that facilitate child exploitation and those that involve the sexual abuse of children, including...