Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) proposed a bill on Tuesday that, if handed, would redefine what obscenity means nationwide, which may successfully decimate the porn trade. The Utah Republican filed the Interstate Obscenity Definition Act (IODA) based mostly on the Communications Act of 1934, and acknowledged within the IODA that “obscenity is not protected speech under the First Amendment and is prohibited from interstate or foreign transmission under U.S. law.”

He continued, “But obscenity is difficult to define (let alone prosecute) under the current Supreme Court test for obscenity: the ‘Miller Test.’”

Sen. Mike Lee and his press secretary didn’t instantly reply to Gizmodo’s request for remark.

The Miller Test was launched in 1973 and is known as after the U.S. Supreme Court’s resolution within the Miller v. California case that 12 months. In that case, a California writer and writer Melvin Miller had been prosecuted for publishing what was dominated as containing obscene materials. Miller had mailed 5 unsolicited brochures to his mom and a restaurant supervisor revealing express photos and photographs of women and men engaged in sexual actions.

Following the courtroom’s resolution, then-Chief Justice Warren Burger outlined tips for jurors to comply with when introduced with obscenity instances together with “whether the average person applying contemporary community standards would find the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law, and whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”

Although producing and distributing sexual content material is at present authorized within the U.S., Lee’s invoice seeks to reinstate the obscenity guidelines that had been established within the Communications Act of 1934. These guidelines embrace eradicating content material that “appeals to the prurient interest in nudity, sex, or excretion, depicts, describes, or represents actual or simulated sexual acts with the objective intent to arouse, titillate, or gratify the sexual desires of a person, and, … lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value,” the IODA says.

This invoice will likely be significantly detrimental to the porn trade which depends solely on what the invoice defines as “obscene content.” The Free Speech Coalition tweeted its concern for the First Amendment on Thursday, arguing the invoice is a renewed try by conservatives to censor free speech and sexual expression.

The director of public affairs with the Free Speech Coalition, Mike Stabile, informed VICE News, “This bill, among our members, has gotten a huge amount of attention. Our members understand this for what it is: It’s a threat to their business, to their livelihood. It’s a threat to their community.”