United States v. X-Citement Video, Inc.
Supreme Court
513 U.S. 64 (1994)
Gottesman, who ran X-Citement Video (defendant), sold an undercover officer videos starring Traci Lords, who had performed in pornographic films before turning eighteen; trial evidence showed Gottesman knew Lords had performed underage but did not know specifically which films were made while she was underage. Convicted of distributing child pornography, Gottesman appealed, and the court of appeals reversed, holding the underlying statute was facially unconstitutional because it did not require knowledge that a specific film contained an underage performer, which the appellate court believed the First Amendment demanded.
Whether the child pornography statute fulfills First Amendment requirements by requiring that an individual know both that the distributed material is sexually explicit and that the performers contained therein are underage.