Porn producer sues
Vivid Entertainment, which was joined in the lawsuit by porn stars Kayden Kross and Logan Pierce, claims the mandate was both an unconstitutional prior restraint on freedom of expression and a financial burden that studios could not bear.
"You don't have to win an Oscar to be protected by the First Amendment," lead plaintiffs attorney Paul Cambria told Reuters after filing the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
The complaint, which also alleges that the law, known as Measure B, treads into an area regulated by the state, seeks an injunction that would stop the ballot initiative.
The measure was approved by about 56 percent of Los Angeles County voters in November, from taking effect.
Attorneys for Los Angeles County, its chief public health official Kenneth Fielding, and District Attorney Jackie Lacey, who were also named as defendants, declined to comment on the lawsuit on Friday afternoon.
Measure B, which was sponsored by the group AIDS Healthcare Foundation, requires porn actors filming in Los Angeles County, the heart of the massive U.S. adult film industry, to wear condoms during sex scenes.
The law also orders producers of such films to pay a fee to the county's Department of Public Health and obtain a permit that requires all principals and management-level employees to undergo blood-borne pathogen training.
"They're telling the production house that in order to produce legally protected expression, you have to first get government approval and you have to agree to shoot it in particular way, namely with condoms," Cambria said.
Cambria said the industry already had a system of testing for sexually transmitted diseases that worked well and that the new condom law was prompting adult film studios to leave Southern California, heading overseas or to Mexico.
"I can tell you they are leaving L.A. County in droves," he said. "It's a multi-billion dollar industry that employs thousands of people, and ever since this all started they have been leaving and filming in places other than L.A. County."
Cambria said that if studios leave Los Angeles County because of the law, then adult film workers would have less protection, not more, because "what you're doing is taking it to a place where there will be no rules."
He said it was not economically feasible to digitally remove the condoms in post-production because the studios were competing with rivals elsewhere who had no such restrictions.
