Cite as: 535 U. S. 234 (2002)
Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting
speech. The statute provides an affirmative defense for those who produce, distribute, or receive pornographic images of individuals who are actually adults, § 2252A(c), but not for those with pornographic images that are wholly computer generated. This is not surprising given that the legislative findings enacted by Congress contain no mention of youthful adult pornography. Those findings focus explicitly only on actual child pornography and virtual child pornography. See, e. g., Finding (9), notes following § 2251 ("[T]he danger to children who are seduced and molested with the aid of child sex pictures is just as great when the child pornographer or child molester uses visual depictions of child sexual activity produced wholly or in part by electronic, mechanical, or other means, including by computer, as when the material consists of unretouched photographic images of actual children engaging in sexually explicit conduct"). Drawing a line around, and striking just, the CPPA's ban on youthful adult pornography not only is consistent with Congress' understanding of the categories of speech encompassed by § 2256(8)(B), but also preserves the CPPA's prohibition of the material that Congress found most dangerous to children.
In sum, I would strike down the CPPA's ban on material that "conveys the impression" that it contains actual child pornography, but uphold the ban on pornographic depictions that "appea[r] to be" of minors so long as it is not applied to youthful adult pornography.
Chief Justice Rehnquist, with whom Justice Scalia joins in part, dissenting.
I agree with Part II of Justice O'Connor's opinion concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part. Congress has a compelling interest in ensuring the ability to enforce prohibitions of actual child pornography, and we should defer to its findings that rapidly advancing technology soon will make it all but impossible to do so. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. FCC, 520 U. S. 180, 195 (1997) (we
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