Bob CollinsEvery other year or so a survey reveals that most Americans have never read the U.S. Constitution, and every few days someone claiming a constitutional right proves the surveys correct.
Today it’s David Reidinger, a 45-year-old man who was caught watching porn at a computer at the University of Wisconsin library in Eau Claire.
He was cited for disorderly conduct and fined about $300 but he claimed two Supreme Court decisions — one saying people had a right to possess pornography and one striking down a law to protect minors from indecent material online — supported his claim of a First Amendment freedom to view porn on a library computer.
Said the court in its ruling today:
We observe that Reidinger was not cited under a statute or other authority that proscribed public viewing of obscene materials; rather, he was cited for disorderly conduct. Disorderly conduct laws are “aimed at proscribing conduct in terms of the results that could be reasonably expected therefrom.” While such laws may have the incidental effect of limiting certain speech, it has long been recognized that there is a valid countervailing interest in preserving public order. In this case, as the State points out, there was ample evidence that Reidinger’s public viewing of pornography at the library was indecent or otherwise disorderly and that it tended to provoke a disturbance.
