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HB 1154: Latterell’s Unworkable Porngates and Porn Tax Fail in Committee

House Judiciary passed a civics test last week, though barely with a D.

Culture-war maven Representative Isaac Latterell (R-6/Tea) brought House Bill 1154 to crack down on pornography in South Dakota. HB 1154 would have required any “internet content distributor,” defined as anyone who “manufactures, sells, offers for sale, leases, or distributes a product that makes content accessible on the internet,” to set their devices by default to block porn.

Now think about all the businesses that would fall under that definition. Here in Aberdeen, that would include every phone and computer store, including Walmart, Target, and Office Depot, the computer and resale shop down the street, and maybe even my neighbor Jesse, who builds networks and thus sells and installs products that help businesses access online content. Those businesses would all have to dig into every device they sell and find some way to set up porngates.

In addition, Rep. Latterell though it would be a good idea to require those content distributors to continually monitor the proper functioning of those porn gates, which could be read to require Target to call me every month and ask if their phone, laptop, and smart-watch customers have been viewing any nudie pix. Those distributors would each have to maintain hotlines for customers to report naughty sites that their porngates aren’t catching. Those distributors would have to determine if any of the content reported is child porn and report that to the feds.

Target, Walmart, and your local phone shop would have to manage an opt-in system where anyone who wants to deactivate the porn gates would have to provide ID and sign a form prepared by the Attorney General saying, yup, I want to open my porngate.

And the kicker: Republican Isaac Latterell wanted to create a porn tax. Walmart, Target, and your local phone shop would have to collect $20 from every person requesting the deactivation of their porn blocker. So not only was culture-warrior Latterell asking the Legislature to dragoon all sorts of private businesses into acting as porn cops in an unworkable snooping scheme, but he was also going to create a new tax.

Where, oh where, can I find a real Republican anymore?

Latterell’s idea was so bad that the only people Latterell could get to testify for it in House Judiciary Friday were some guy from Texas who was disbarred for “mental infirmity or illness” and got busted in 2013 for stalking country singer John Rice, some lady from Iowa, and bumbling right-wing extremist Rep. Kaleb Weis’s xenophobic wife Kayla. South Dakota retailers, telecoms, Midco, and Verizon came to House Judiciary and said no way.

HB 1154 was obviously a bad bill, reeking of government overreach. It died on a 7–4 vote… which means only 63% of committee members present voted correctly. Uff da—Governor Noem’s HB 1066 would require high schoolers to score 70% on a civics test; HB 1087 would require college students to score 85% on a civics test. Come on, House Judiciary—constitutional scholars like you should be 100% on crafting responsible legislation.

6 Comments

  1. mike from iowa 2019-02-14 09:20

    Small government liar’s “Big Brotherism.”

  2. Donald Pay 2019-02-14 10:29

    It appears this is another one of those bills developed by some out-of-state bill mill. A similar bill was introduced into West Virginia and South Carolina legislatures. There is a bill with some of the aspects of the South Dakota bill in the New Jersey legislature. Three bills on the subject are in the Hawaii legislature, but they may have different aspects.

    Again, there needs to be some disclosure on these bill mill bills that says where they came from.

  3. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2019-02-14 12:17

    Donald, I would love to see a disclosure requirement on every bill: “This bill brought to you by….”

  4. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2019-02-14 12:24

    By Latterell’s logic…

    Guns are used to harm children. Gun shops should thus be required to sell all guns equipped with child safety locks. If the gun buyer wants to remove that child safety lock, the gun buyer must present ID, fill out an AG’s form, and pay a $20 tax to the state to be used in deterring gun crimes.

    Alcohol use harms children. Alcohol distributors should thus be prohibited from selling beverages in any container large enough to contain an intoxicating amount of alcohol and monitoring every customer’s purchases to ensure no one buys or ingests a harmful amount of alcohol. Anyone wishing to drink to excess must present ID to the distributor, fill out an AG’s form, and pay a $20 drunk tax, to be used to fund alcohol and drug abuse treatment in the corrections system.

    Automobiles harm children. Auto dealers should thus be required to sell every automobile with a GPS-enabled governor that stops a car from traveling faster than the posted speed limit on any road. Anyone wishing to disable this governor must present ID to the distributor, fill out an AG’s form, and paya $20 speeder’s tax, to be used to fund road repairs.

  5. Porter Lansing 2019-02-14 12:42

    Latterell is fully transparent, to those who know the psychology of self-justification.
    ~ To be justified, is to be made righteous.
    Firstly “justification” signifies the forgiveness of sins. It is forensic declaration that one is no longer guilty.
    Secondly “justification” is remission of sins and a dedication to a sanctified life.
    Thirdly “justification” is imputed righteousness. i.e. Because Latterell put forward this repudiation of pornography, he is now imputed to be absolved of his sin of addiction to pornography.

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