Crush Fetish - Crush Films - United States

United States

In 1999, the United States Congress enacted a statute affecting the legality of crush films which criminalized the creation, sale, or possession with the intent to sell of depictions of animal cruelty, though with an exception for "any depiction that has serious religious, political, scientific, educational, journalistic, historical, or artistic value." In 2008, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit invalidated the ban on the sale and possession of such films (if not otherwise obscene) as a violation of the Constitution's guarantee for freedom of speech. The United States Supreme Court affirmed the Third Circuit's decision in United States v. Stevens, finding the law unconstitutional because the law was so broad and vague that it included any portrayal of an animal in or being harmed such as by hunting or disease. As of November 28, 2010, bill H.R. 5566, which prohibits interstate commerce in animal crush films, has been passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate. On December 9, President Obama signed the Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act of 2010 into law to re-criminalize the creation, sale, distribution, advertising, marketing and exchange of animal crush videos.