A Decent Ruling by the Court

The Military Honor and Decency Act is the highfalutin title of an officious piece of legislation that too many members of Congress didn’t have the political guts to reject last year. Aiming high, it would prohibit the men and women of the armed forces from being exposed to “lascivious” periodicals and audio and video recordings on military bases, thus, presumably, safeguarding their honor and decency. In seeking to censor what they can read, listen to or look at, the law would deny them a right possessed by every other American. Not surprisingly, a federal judge has now ruled that this ban unconstitutionally violates the 1st Amendment’s guarantee of free speech.

U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ordered the Defense Department not to ban sales of Penthouse magazine and other sexually explicit materials in post exchanges, commissaries and ship stores. In so doing she accepted the plaintiffs’ argument that the military should restrict materials covered by the 1st Amendment only when clearly necessary to carry out its mission and to maintain loyalty, discipline and morale.

Scheindlin, as many judges before her have done, acknowledged that the wide latitude given to free speech can sometimes have “unfortunate and unpleasant” results. But in the final analysis, she wisely held, “society is better served by protecting our cherished right to free speech, even at the cost of tolerating speech that is outrageous, offensive and demeaning.”

The congressional guardians of military purity who wrote the ban never explained why men and women who are old enough to fight for their country should be patronizingly regarded as too immature to buy magazines and videos of their choosing. Now that’s behavior that’s outrageous, offensive and demeaning.