Fri Dec 18, 2009 @ 09:08AM PST
By Eriq Gardner
This one targets the Liberty Counsel, the conservative organization that lead the cause against ABC last month for airing Adam Lambert's controversial performance at the American Music Awards. On November 24, Liberty filed a
grievance with the FCC over Lambert's allegedly "obscene" dance routine.
Randazza has responded with his own
FCC filing that will certainly cement his hero status among free speech advocates. He writes:
While we must tolerate the existence of the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party, and the Liberty Counsel, we need not allow such organizations to shape our public policy. If Anita Staver wishes to tie her stained granny panties in a wad over some perceived homosexual threat, she has that right. But, the time has come for the FCC to cease its policy of allowing every Comstock-wanna-be with a crucifix to start the censorship ball rolling.
Anita Staver is a constitutional lawyer and president of the Liberty Counsel.
Later in his brief, Randazza points to the factors for deeming a broadcast to be legally obscene, taking issue with Liberty's stance that the broadcast was marked by an "unwholesome sexual interest or desire." The lawyer uses this to suggest that male members of the Staver household should submit to a penile plethysmography or other medical probes to see if they are physically aroused by Lambert's performance and warrant a federal government investigation.