Assistant Professor of Political Science Todd Lochner analyzes slow-moving obscenity case

Todd Lochner, assistant professor of political science, discusses the slow process of prosecuting obscenity cases during the past eight years of the Bush administration. Lochner points out that because, under the Clinton administration, these charges were typically coupled with other counts, they became higher priority. Considered more of a “moral barometer” under the current administration, these obscenity cases face numerous delays. “It’s not so much the number of obscenity cases they bring, but the qualitative nature of what they’re trying to do by bringing them. The prosecution is trying to set boundaries as to the acceptable realm of adult material,” says Lochner.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, Penn.) Federal obscenity case, filed 5 years ago, has stalled