The Antipornography Civil Rights Ordinance (also known as the Dworkin-MacKinnon Antipornography Civil Rights Ordinance or Dworkin-MacKinnon Ordinance) is a name for several proposed local ordinances in the United States. closely associated with the anti-pornography radical feminists Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon, that proposed to treat pornography as a violation of women's civil rights, and to allow women harmed by pornography to seek damages through a lawsuit in civil court. The approach was distinguished from traditional obscenity law, which attempts to suppress pornography through the use of prior restraint and criminal penalties.
The ordinances were originally written in 1983 by Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon, and supported by many (but not all) of their fellow members of the feminist anti-pornography movement. Versions of the ordinance were passed in several cities in the United States during the 1980s, but were blocked by city officials and struck down by courts, who found it to violate the freedom of speech protections of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Read more about Antipornography Civil Rights Ordinance: History, Butler Decision in Canada, Definition of Pornography in The Ordinance, Causes For Action, Criticism
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