A top adult film producer sued Los Angeles County over a new law that stipulates porn actors must wear condoms during sex scenes in porn movies, claiming that it infringes on their First Amendment rights.
Vivid Entertainment claims that Measure B is unnecessary because the adult industry already has safeguards, such as regular blood testing of actors, to prevent the spread of AIDS and other venereal diseases.
The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction that would block implementation of Measure B, which requires porn actors filming in Los Angeles County - the heart of the massive U.S. adult film industry - to wear condoms during sex scenes.
"You don't have to win an Oscar to be protected by the First Amendment," the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, Paul Cambria, said according to Reuters after filing the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. The ballot initiative known as Measure B, which was approved by 56 percent of county voters in November
Meanwhile, Adult film actors rallied to oppose the law before its November passage.
"The idea of allowing a government employee to come and examine our genitalia while we're on set is atrocious," sex film star Amber Lynn told the Los Angeles Daily News at the time.
The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction that would block implementation of Measure B, which requires porn actors filming in Los Angeles County - the heart of the massive U.S. adult film industry - to wear condoms during sex scenes.
Meanwhile, an attorney for AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which sponsored the measure, predicted that the lawsuit would fail.
"Despite what the adult industry's lawyers are claiming in this lawsuit, Measure B is not directed at speech and as such their First Amendment claims will likely ring hollow with the court," the group's general counsel, Tom Myers, said in a written statement.
