In Too Deep

Here's an interesting piece on how wide the FBI investigation into the 70s porn film Deep Throat was. Law professor Mark Weiner has this to say:

Today we can't imagine authorities at any level of government - local, state or federal - being involved in obscenity prosecutions of this kind. The story of Deep Throat is the story of the last gasp of the forces lined up against the cultural and sexual revolution and it is the advent of the entry of pornography into the mainstream.

He's seconded by my old pal, Professor Eugene Volokh.

Certainly today, with our broadly socially less restrictive attitude to most pornography and to sex more broadly it may seem odd that the government was spending so much effort on something like this. But attitudes back then were much different.

I wish I could believe them, but I'm not so sure. There are millions of busybodies out there who'd like nothing better than for government to get more involved in our personal lives. They'd love to take over the reins of government and put as much pressure as possible on people who don't live up to their moral standard.

They already have some influence, and the laws are still on the books and sometimes put to use. All it would take is a moral panic--and they come along regularly--to return this mindset to power.