On Monday a regional U.S. federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that adult entertainers working in the Los Angeles area must wear a condom during a sex scene.
Back in 2012 voters in Los Angeles approved a measure that required actors in the adult industry to not only wear condoms, but to also be tested for sexually transmitted disease on a regular basis. The lawyers for the adult industry argued that forcing actors to wear condoms was violated their First Amendment right of freedom of expression and that:
Pornographic movie producers have said visible contraceptives put off some of their customers, because they reminded them of real-world worries such as pregnancy and disease.
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals three-judge panel disagreed, stating in part:
...to achieve the county’s interest of reducing the rate of sexually transmitted infections while also leaving open “adequate alternative means of expression.”
The panel said it agreed with the lower court that, whatever “unique message” the filmmakers might hope to convey by depicting condomless sex, it was unlikely that viewers of adult films would understand that message.
Via NY Daily News