"Explicit" Content in Indiana

When looking for articles of interest this week I found an older blog posting about one Indiana State Representative who tried to walk a not so fine line to predict and limit where books with "explicit" material could be sold within the state. The law that Terry Goodin proposed in 2008 would force vendors who wanted to sell books with explicit content to declare this fact and to pay a $250 registration fee in order to do so.

This bill was born in response to an adult book store that opened off of Interstate 65, which had originally been zoned as a convenience store. The local community was shocked when The Lion's Den, an adult book store, opened instead. Goodin's law was very vague in the definition of what "explicit" materials entailed and while the law originally passed in 2008, it was voided by Judge Barker in that same year. Lawmakers who had supported the bill expressed the desire to come back with a more clearly worded law during the next year. I was unable to find any more recent action taken with this particular law.

There was an outcry from local book sellers when this bill was designed. Almost any store that sold books would be considered to sell "explicit" materials as designated in the bill. There is a deeper concern for those who think about this bill. By charging a fee, and therefore restricting the businesses that can sell certain types of materials, would the Indiana State Legislature in fact be censoring those materials? And if such a bill passes and is not revoked what types of books would be worthy of that fee next?