CITIZENS FOR DECENCY THROUGH LAW

CITIZENS FOR DECENCY THROUGH LAW

Citizens for Decency through Law (CDL), one of
the first major anti-pornography organizations
in the United States, was founded in 1956 by
lawyer and future financier Charles H. Keating
Jr., after his daughter was sexually attacked in
the 1950s. Believing that PORNOGRAPHY causes
violence and CHILD ABUSE, CDL members have
endeavored to stop the sale of pornographic
material and close movie theaters that show sex-
ually explicit movies by pressuring politicians
and judges into enforcing OBSCENITY laws.
CDL has provided legal advice to cities
investigating dealers in sexually explicit motion
pictures, magazines, and mail-order publica-
tions. CDL attorneys have concentrated on help-
ing the police and prosecutors to prepare trials
and appeals in obscenity cases, prepare testi-
mony before local, state, and federal legislative
committees, and draft model legislation.
Between 1963 and 1981, CDL sponsored or
wrote AMICUS CURIAE (FRIEND-OF-THE-COURT)
briefs for 27 obscenity cases reviewed by the U.S.
Supreme Court. Of those cases, 37 percent had
rulings favorable to CDL’s views. In addition to
providing direct, personal assistance in certain
important cases, CDL’s legal staff have prepared
and mailed comprehensive analyses of develop-
ments in obscenity law to prosecutors around
the United States. The group has also sought to
educate the public on the extent of the traffic in
obscene materials.
Keating, a staunch Roman Catholic who
originally called his group Citizens for Decent
Literature, is perhaps best known as a central
figure in a scandal involving the Lincoln Savings
and Loan Association. Between 1989 and 1993,
he was charged with and convicted on numer-
ous civil RACKETEERING and FRAUD charges and
sentenced to prison. CDL as a national organi-
zation splintered after the scandal, but local
chapters remain active in some cities and states.
Keating began his career as a prosecutor in
Cincinnati—a conservative city that now prides
itself on being a national center for anti-pornog-
raphy efforts—and first sought to rid news-
stands of sexually explicit materials in the 1950s
when he prosecuted a local candy store accused
of selling obscene publications. By 1969, his
zealous battles against pornography had earned
him an appointment by RICHARD M. NIXON to
the Presidential Commission on Obscenity and
Pornography. In 1970, Keating filed a lawsuit
that delayed release of a report by the commis-
sion that recommended repeal of all adult CEN-
SORSHIP laws.
Over the years, CDL battled foes ranging
from Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine,
to Pacific Bell, which allowed indiscriminate
access to dial-a-porn messages. A long-running
skirmish in the 1980s involved an adult movie
theater in an Orange County, California, shop-
ping center that Lincoln Savings and Loan sued
after the city of Santa Ana failed to close the the-
ater. Lincoln’s lawsuit charged that the theater,
operated by Mitchell Brothers, attracted “crimi-
nal elements, ORGANIZED CRIME and persons
who practice sexual deviations, such as homo-
sexuals, lesbians, voyeurs, prostitutes, pedo-
philes, sadists, masochists, rapists, etc., into the
area.” (After the Lincoln bank failed, the federal
government took over the institution, and the
lawsuit was dropped.)

During the administrations of Presidents
RONALD REAGAN and GEORGE HERBERT WALKER
BUSH lawyers recruited from CDL took part in a
controversial and lengthy prosecution of busi-
nesses involved with obscene materials. In
November 1993, the U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
dropped this prosecution tactic, which involved
threatening businesses with indictments in
numerous jurisdictions in order to extract
agreements to stop distribution of the materials.
The theory behind the strategy was that the
mere expense of defending themselves in so
many places would encourage plea bargains by
the businesses. Among the targets of these pros-
ecutions was Adam and Eve, a large distributor of sexually explicit films, magazines, and books.

A number of federal judges and civil liberties
organizations denounced the multidistrict tactic
as a form of harassment, sweeping in nonobscene
materials protected by the FIRST AMENDMENT
in addition to unprotected obscenity.
CDL often worked with other organizations,
including the National Religious Alliance
against Pornography; Morality in Media; the
Moral Majority; Citizens against Pornography;
the American Family Association; and the
National Federation for Decency. It has also
been aligned with smaller compatriot groups
such as Citizens for Legislation against Decadence
in Portland, Oregon; Women against
Pornography in New York; Feminists against
Pornography in Chicago and in Washington,
D.C.; and the feminist-sponsored Pornography
Resource Center in Minneapolis. CDL opponents
include the AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES
UNION and other civil liberties organizations as
well as publishers of pornography, such as Oui
magazine, which in 1975 dubbed Keating the
number one enemy of pornography.

FURTHER READINGS
“Interest Group Litigation During the Rehnquist Era.” 1993.
Journal of Law and Politics (summer).
“The Public Interest and the Constitutionality of Private
Prosecutors.” 1994. Arkansas Law Review 47.