Powell's Books v. Myers

1. Plaintiffs' complaint
2. Motion for preliminary injunction
3. Memo in support of preliminary injunction

U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mosman, of the District of Oregon, declined to grant plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction, which was filed on April 25 in U.S. District Court in Portland, Oregon. Judge Mosman has set an expedited schedule for trial for a permanent injunction. Plaintiffs’ opening brief is due July 30^th, the State’s response is due on August 29^th, and plaintiffs’ reply is due on September 12^th. The hearing on the merits is scheduled for October 3^rd.

The case is a challenge to a law that makes illegal for minors sexually explicit material without adhering to the Miller/Ginsberg three-pronged test. The law bars disseminating to a minor under 13 “sexually explicit material” which is defined as visual images of sexual conduct. The law also makes it a crime of “luring” by disseminating visual material showing sexual conduct or a narrative account of sexual conduct to anyone under 18 with the intent of sexually arousing or satisfying the provider or recipient of the material. Neither provision provides for a value prong. The law went into effect January 1, 2008.

Plaintiffs are the Association of American Publishers, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Freedom to Read Foundation, comic book publisher Dark Horse Comics, Powell’s Books, Old Multnomah Bookstore, Annie Bloom’s Books, Colette’s: Good Food and Hungry Minds, Paulina Springs Books, St. John’s Booksellers, 23rd Avenue Books, librarian Candace Morgan, Planned Parenthood of the Columbia, Cascade AIDS Project, and the Oregon Civil Liberties Union.