Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act of 2010
{{short description|2010 United States bill}}
The Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act of 2010, {{USStatute|111|294|124|3177|2010|12|09}}, was a United States bill that addressed the banning of depictions of cruelty to animals to satisfy a crush fetish.{{cite news|title=Obama signs law banning 'crush videos' depicting animal cruelty|first=Bill|last=Mears|date=December 10, 2010|work=CNN News|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/12/10/animal.cruelty/index.html#:~:text=The%20justices%20by%20an%208,unconstitutional%20violation%20of%20free%20speech.}} The bill, {{USBill|111|hr|5566}}, was introduced by Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA),{{cite news|title=Local congressman introduces new bill to stop the sale of animal cruelty videos|first=Richard|last=Simon|date=April 21, 2010|work=Los Angeles Times|url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2010/04/animal-cruelty-videos-law-supreme.html}} and primarily modified {{usc|18|48}}. The law was upheld by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in USA v Richards.{{cite web |url=https://www.stopcrush.org/wp-content/uploads/Opinion_in_Fifth_Circuit.pdf |title=United States of America v. Ashley Nicole Richards; Brent Justice}}
Background
{{main|United States v. Stevens}}
The act revised the version of 18 U.S.C. § 48 that had entered into effect on December 9, 1999, which had been ruled an unconstitutional abridgment of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech by the Supreme Court. The previous law, placed into effect by {{USPL|106|152}}, aimed at banning the publication, sale, and ownership of so-called "crush videos", which are films that feature a person or another animal crushing or trampling another smaller animal to death.[http://www.stopcrush.org/?page_id=2 About Crush « STOPCRUSH.ORG][http://www.pet-abuse.com/pages/animal_cruelty/crush_videos.php Stopping Crush Videos] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180119021849/http://www.pet-abuse.com/pages/animal_cruelty/crush_videos.php |date=2018-01-19 }}, [http://www.pet-abuse.com Pet-Abuse.Com]. In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that the law was too vague and broad in United States v. Stevens, and, in an 8–1 decision, it ruled unconstitutional the 1999 law.Adam Liptak, [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/us/21scotus.html Justices Reject Ban on Videos of Animal Cruelty], April 20, 2010, The New York Times.