WASHINGTON, May 1 (UPI) -- The Justice Department has crafted a new child pornography law that will survive constitutional muster, unlike the one struck down by the Supreme Court last month, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Wednesday.
Ashcroft and a group of Congress members announced the new legislation at the Justice Department, and at the same time denounced the Supreme Court in language that was exceptionally harsh, even by current Washington standards.
"The high court, in siding with pedophiles over children, forced us into action," said Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla.
"The Supreme Court has blown a hole in the statutes" against child pornography, said Rep. Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota, the only Democrat in the group.
On April 16, the Supreme Court struck down major portions of the 1996 Child Pornography Prevention Act, saying they were overbroad and unconstitutional.
Specifically, the 6-3 decision said the law banned images that are not considered obscene under Supreme Court precedent. The ruling also invalidated the law's ban against virtual child pornography -- images produced solely by computer without the involvement of children -- and the ban against images involving adults who look like children.
Ashcroft said the decision "did grave injury to our ability to protect children from exploitation ... The protection of virtual child pornography by the Supreme Court threatens the de facto protection against all child pornography."
The attorney general said 20-year-old precedents do not address the current problem.
"The court's ruling comes at a time," Ashcroft contended, "when the availability of child pornography is exploding on the Internet."
Ashcroft pointed out that 13 of the 93 suspects caught up in a recent nationwide sweep of child pornography users and distributors have allegedly confessed to the molestation of 48 children.
The connection between pornography and molestation is strong, he said.
The court's ruling "created a dangerous window of opportunity for child abusers to escape prosecutions" by claiming they thought the child pornography in their possession was computer generated, not a real depiction, he added.
Ashcroft said the new legislation is "carefully crafted to address the Supreme Court's (constitutional) concerns."
The new legislation narrows its ban on "virtual" child pornography, and gives suspects a chance to prove that the images in their possession were produced without using real children, Ashcroft said.
It bans all child pornography involving pre-pubescent children in order to avoid unconstitutional overreaching.
The new legislation also includes a ban on showing pornography to children, Ashcroft said, and on any offer to buy or sell child pornography, regardless of whether any actual child pornography was produced.
That section of the new law is aimed at producers who promise their customers actual child pornography, but ultimately present adult actors posing as children.
The legislation also creates an FBI database of pornographic images known to be of real children. The data would help prosecutors pursue defendants who claim their images of real children were computer produced.
House Majority Whip Tom Delay, R-Texas, appeared with Ashcroft for the announcement, and promised quick action in the House on the legislation.
In contrast to the other speakers, however, the usual firebrand's criticism of the court was uncharacteristically mild. "The court's ruling was a huge disappointment for everyone working to protect children," DeLay said.
Rep. Lamar Smith, also R-Texas, promised hearings on the legislation later Wednesday before the Judiciary Committee subcommittee he chairs.
Sens. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., promised equally swift action on the legislation in the Senate.
