Legal and cultural norms regard sharing nude or indecent photos of someone without their consent as a violation of privacy. But when it's done to shame or humiliate that person, Vermont law says nonconsensual pornography鈥攕o-called "revenge porn"鈥攊s a crime. Now a Vermont Supreme Court ruling has overturned a lower court's decision, bolstering the state's law and deeming it constitutional.
In 2015 state legislators defined sharing nonconsensual pornography a specific category of crime in the state, arguing it fell within permitted exceptions to the First Amendment's broad protection of free speech.
But lawyers defending a woman charged under that 2015 law challenged it, and despite a lower court ruling it unconstitutional, last month the the state's law against nonconsensual pornography should stand.
, law professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and , joined Vermont Edition to discuss the court's decision and how the Vermont ruling could have ramifications across the country.
Broadcast on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018 at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.
