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US Appellate Court Upholds Virginias Law on Online Solicitation of Minors
A three-judge panel unanimously held that the state of Virginia law against sending indecent messages to minors is constitutional.
Dean Robert Podracky used an AOL messaging program to communicate with a sixteen year old minor. After the minor’s parents got involved, the Virginia Beach Police Department began an investigation in which a detective pretended to be the minor in subsequent chat sessions. Mr. Podracky inquired whether the minor was really sixteen and suggested that they meet up in a hotel to have sex and to take sexually explicit photographs. The detective and several other officers greeted Mr. Podracky at the hotel and served a warrant to search his room.
In a brief 12-page ruling, the Virginia Court of Appeal rejected the argument that the statute is overbroad because it prohibits free speech in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. As a general principle, the First Amendment bars the government from dictating what Americans see, read, speak or hear. However, the decision reiterated a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that offers to engage in illegal transactions are categorically excluded from First Amendment protection.
Mr. Podracky relied heavily on an earlier U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down two provisions of a different federal law. Under that law, someone could commit a crime by publishing indecent materials (that adults have a constitutional right to see) on the Internet. In this decision, the Virginia Court of Appeal distinguished between knowingly communicating indecent material to minors and knowingly using a communication system to solicit a minor for certain criminal acts.
For a copy of the decision, visit: