Shock Art Judge Alex Kozinski Pauses the Ira Isaacs Obscenity Trial While the Judge's Website is Reviewed ~ by Legal Pub

When does art constitute pornography? Judge Alex Kozinski may not be the one to decide since he has granted a joint motion to suspend the Ira Isaacs "shock-art" trial after the prosecution requested time to look at the judge's Web site. The jury is to return on Monday. (Judge Kozinski is in the first photo.)

So far the jury has seen several hours of videos depicting bestiality and extreme fetishes.
Judge Kozinski is chief justice of the 9th Circuit but is serving as a trial judge in the obscenity case of Ira Isaacs. Isaacs allegedly produced and sold movies depicting bestiality and sexual activity involving feces and urine. His own attorney, Roger Jon Diamond, finds it disgusting but argues that it is a constitutionally protected form of art.

Information on the judges site can be found at: LA Times: Judge has sex site?
Additional coverage of the trial can be found at: " Watch more on the art vs. porn debate »

Isaacs is 57. He is a Los Angeles advertising agency owner. He calls himself a "shock artist." He claims that he is, "...fighting for art." He plans to testify as his own expert witness. One can expect a rehash of previous obscenity battles involving authors James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence.
Isaacs argues that his art has therapeutic value for people with fetishes depicted onscreen.

At times, Isaacs sold as many as 1,000 videos a month at $30 apiece. The FBI then shut him down. An indictment was issued against Isaacs on a variety of obscenity charges, including importation or transportation of obscene material for sale. Such prosecutions have become more common since the U.S. Department of Justice Obscenity Prosecution Task Force was created.

The test of obscenity still hinges on a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that held that a work is not legally obscene if it has "literary, artistic, political or scientific value."
Each of the four counts against Isaacs carries a five-year maximum prison sentence. Isaacs could also be ordered to forfeit assets obtained through his video sales. Similar cases are likely to be brought against others if Isaacs is convicted.

It seems that if people did not purchase the porn, there would not be a market for its production. A market place of moral consumers would greatly reduce the perceived problem. However, one can not help but observe that under the 1973 definition, much of what our politicians say and do could be declared obscene since it lacks "literary, artistic, political and scientific value." In this day and age of scrutiny, jokes that may once have been considered humor no longer produce as many laughs...