The latest in Free Speech Coalition v. Gonzales
Apr 3rd, 2025 by Mikey Mongol
I posted something a bit more thorough over at A Savage Place, but the Cliffs Notes version of the story is that Judge Walker D. Miller has made a ruling on the motion for a summary judgement in the Free Speech Coalition’s challenge of the new 2257 record-keeping laws — the ones that govern the production of pornographic materials — in the Colorado District Court (aka Free Speech Coalition v. Gonzales). You can read more about it over at AVN, and a reaction at the Free Speech Coalition’s own website.
While a setback for the FSC’s efforts, the ruling did clarify certain previously ambiguous parts of the new 2257 regulations. It gets a little involved, but the upshot is that a lot of the new record keeping rules aren’t quite as draconian as the written law might suggest. Most significantly: While producers do have to keep copies of the IDs of performers on file, they’re allowed to blot out the day and month of the performer’s birthdate and the performer’s SSN and home address on those copies. That’s a huge deal — otherwise, think of the potential for identity theft and stalking if and when those records are released to “secondary producers”, including retail outlets — and I think it’ll make the new 2257 regs a lot more palatable to people.