Crush Videos Crushed
Who says bipartisanship is dead? Legislators on both sides of the aisle have at last found something they can agree on: So-called “crush videos” depicting the crushing, burning, drowning, or impaling of animals have no place in a civilized society.
After the Supreme Court struck down a previous law banning such videos, one of the sponsors of the original law, Rep. Elton Gallegly, immediately got to work writing a new one. In order to avoid the free-speech hurdle that tripped up the previous law, the new law is more narrowly defined to apply solely to non-educational videos depicting certain specific acts that violate cruelty-to-animals laws.
A House version of the bill was overwhelmingly approved in July, and the Senate version passed on Friday. It now moves on to the president for his signature.
Written by Alisa Mullins
