Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) reintroduced a bill earlier this month that would broadly redefine what content can be classified as “obscenity” in an attempt to criminalize pornography, a move that’s drawn comparisons to the right-wing initiative Project 2025.
“Obscenity isn’t protected by the First Amendment, but hazy and unenforceable legal definitions have allowed extreme pornography to saturate American society and reach countless children,” Lee said in a May 8 release introducing the Interstate Obscenity Definition Act.
Lee’s bill has striking parallels to Project 2025, an initiative from the conservative Heritage Foundation that laid out policy blueprints for President Donald Trump’s second term. Despite Trump’s attempts to distance himself from Project 2025, he has placed key architects of the project into influential positions in the federal government.
In the 920-page playbook, the Heritage Foundation claimed pornography “has no claim to First Amendment protection” and should be outlawed, MSNBC reported.
“The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered,” text from Project 2025 reads.
