The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld a law barring selling child pornography even when no real children are used in the actual material. Prosecutors had claimed that if the law was not sustained, they would have to prove that real children had been used and not generated on a computer. Opponents had contended that the law could be applied to legitimate Hollywood movies, depicting, say, child rape. "The average person understands that sex scenes in mainstream movies use nonchild actors, depict sexual activity in a way that would not rise to the explicit level necessary under the statute, or, in most cases, both," the majority (7-2) opinion said. But in his dissent, Justice David Souter observed that the Justice Department successfully prosecuted 1,209 child pornography cases in 2006. "Without some demonstration that juries have been rendering exploitation of children unpunishable, there is no excuse for cutting back on the 1st Amendment," Souter said.
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