{
  "id": "92-56",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "92-56",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 100522,
      "date": "2002-02-27",
      "retrieved": "2016-05-24T20:14:36.229941",
      "title": "The \"Son of Sam\" Case: First Amendment Analysis and Legislative Implications",
      "summary": "In  Simon & Schuster, Inc. v. Members of the New York State Crime Victims\nBoard , the United States\nSupreme Court held that New York State's \"Son of Sam\" law was inconsistent with the First\nAmendment's guarantee of freedom of speech and press. The Son of Sam law, in the Court's words,\n\"requires that an accused or convicted criminal's income from works describing his crime be\ndeposited in an escrow account. These funds are then made available to the victims of the crime and\nthe criminal's other creditors.\" \"[T]he Federal Government and most of the States have enacted\nstatutes with similar objectives.\" This report examines the Supreme Court decision and then\nconsiders whether its rationale renders the federal law unconstitutional. Concluding that it likely\ndoes, we consider whether it would be possible to enact a constitutional Son of Sam statute. Finally,\nwe take note of some state Son-of-Sam statutes that have been enacted since the Supreme Court\ndecision.\n  The Court struck down the New York statute apparently because it was both underinclusive in\nthat it applied solely to income derived from the exercise of First Amendment rights, and\noverinclusive in that it could have applied to books such as Saint Augustine's\n Confessions , the\ninclusion of which would not have advanced the government's legitimate interest in depriving\ncriminals of the profits of their crimes and using these funds to compensate victims. The federal Son\nof Sam statute would appear to be unconstitutional for the same reasons, and it remains extremely\nspeculative whether it would be possible to devise a constitutional Son of Sam law.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": false,
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          "encoding": null,
          "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/92-56",
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          "images": null
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      ],
      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "American Law",
    "Constitutional Questions"
  ]
}