Booksellers, groups sue to block state law

Powell’s, Dark Horse Comics are among plaintiffs who claim new law violates their free-speech rights

LocalNewsDaily.com, Apr 28, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (23 Reader comments)

Portland bookseller Michael Powell and owners of a dozen independent bookstores and community organizations are suing the state attorney general and all 36 county district attorneys to block enforcement of a law forbidding the sale of sexually explicit material to people younger than 18.

Attorneys for the booksellers claim the four-month-old law violates their constitutional right to free speech and criminalizes material that would otherwise not be considered sexually explicit, like textbooks, comics or magazines.

The lawsuit was filed Friday, April 25, in U.S. District Court. No date has been set for a hearing on the issue. The booksellers and organizations are seeking an injunction to block the law. State Attorney General Hardy Myers and the district attorneys have not yet filed a response to the lawsuit.

Besides Powell’s Books Inc., other plaintiffs include Dark Horse Comics Inc. of Milwaukie, Annie Bloom’s Books in Multnomah Village, St. Johns Booksellers, Twenty Third Avenue Books, the Cascade Aids Project, Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the Association of American Publishers.

‘Totally impractical’

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