''Curley v. NAMBLA'' was a

wrongful death Wrongful death claim is a claim against a person who can be held liable for a death. The claim is brought in a civil action, usually by close relatives, as enumerated by statute. In wrongful death cases, survivors are compensated for the harm, ...

lawsuit filed in the

United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (in case citations, D. Mass.) is the federal district court whose territorial jurisdiction is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The first court session was he ...

in 2000, by Barbara and Robert Curley against the

North American Man/Boy Love Association The North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) is a pedophilia and pederasty advocacy organization in the United States. It works to abolish age-of-consent laws criminalizing adult sexual involvement with minors and campaigns for the rel ...

(NAMBLA), saying the organization had incited the men who kidnapped and murdered their young son. They sought $200 million in damages. The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (ACLU-M) represented NAMBLA because of the issue of censorship of unpopular speech about sexuality. It succeeded on getting the suit dismissed, based on the specific legal issue that NAMBLA is organized as an association, not a corporation.Deroy Murdock on ACLU & NAMBLA on National Review Online
The Curleys continued their suit against individual members of NAMBLA and its steering committee members. They finally dropped the lawsuit in 2008 because the court ruled that their only witness to incitement was not competent to testify. Soon after his son's murder, Curley had campaigned for the state to pass a bill to re-establish use of the death penalty, but he changed his position and in 2007 opposed it.

Background

In 1997, Barbara and Robert Curley's 10-year-old son Jeffrey was kidnapped, raped and murdered by two men, Salvatore Sicari, 21, and Charlie Jaynes, 22.Louis B. Schlesinger, page 26. Jeffrey was a latchkey child and knew Sicari from the neighborhood, as he lived only a block away. The two men befriended Jeffrey, taking him on car rides to diners. They offered to replace his recently stolen bicycle with a new one in exchange for sex. When Jeffrey refused, Jaynes killed him in the car's backseat. Sicari confessed to his part in the murder but insisted that Jaynes committed the murder. NAMBLA literature and a membership card was found in the backseat of the car and in Jaynes' apartment. Sicari was convicted of

first-degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

and Jaynes was convicted of second-degree murder and kidnapping. Following his son's murder, Robert Curley campaigned for Massachusetts to reinstate the death penalty, which had been ruled unconstitutional in 1975. A bill to do so failed on a tie vote in the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...

shortly after his son's murder. He later changed his position and in 2007 opposed death penalty legislation.

Lawsuit

The Curleys filed a civil suit against NAMBLA in 2000, seeking $200 million in damages. It charged that NAMBLA's "adult-child sexual relationship propaganda", including Jaynes' viewing of the group's website, caused his violent predatory behavior and urge to have sex with and rape young male children. The suit was based on the fact that the convicted murderer had NAMBLA materials and had been found to have visited the group's website. The ACLU said that the suit against NAMBLA highlighted censorship of unpopular speech about sexuality. According to

Wendy Kaminer Wendy Kaminer (born December 28, 1949) is an American lawyer and writer. She has written several books on contemporary social issues, including ''A Fearful Freedom: Women's Flight From Equality'', about the conflict between egalitarian and protect ...

, a longtime ACLU executive, the case was based on "widespread biases about a supposed link between homosexuality and

pedophilia Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty ...

"; in fact, studies have shown that children are more likely to be preyed upon by heterosexuals in their

extended families An extended family is a family that extends beyond the nuclear family of parents and their children to include aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins or other relatives, all living nearby or in the same household. Particular forms include the stem a ...

. Proving the incitement is difficult given the

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

to the

U.S. Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the nation ...

standards that govern words in any medium.Robert M. O'Neil, page 73. At the time the Internet was much less popular, so the point rested on the court's viewing the Internet as such a different media as to warrant a different legal standard. Despite the lawsuit's claims, the NAMBLA website displayed no erotica, nor conspiracies to rape or incitements to violence. In ''

Brandenburg v. Ohio ''Brandenburg v. Ohio'', 395 U.S. 444 (1969), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court interpreting the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Court held that the government cannot punish inflammatory speech unless that s ...

'', , the

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...

held that government cannot punish inflammatory speech unless it is directed to inciting and likely to incite imminent lawless action. In September 2001, the court declined the defense's request for

summary judgment In law, a summary judgment (also judgment as a matter of law or summary disposition) is a judgment entered by a court for one party and against another party summarily, i.e., without a full trial. Summary judgments may be issued on the merits of ...

, because Brandenburg "does not foreclose liability 'on any set of facts that might be shown'" as to incitement just by NAMBLA's publications, meetings and website. But the court dismissed the suit based on the specific legal issue that NAMBLA is organized as an association, not a corporation. The Curleys continued the suit as a wrongful death action against individual NAMBLA members and NAMBLA Steering Committee members.Plaintiffs' amended complaint and jury demand
May 16, 2000. The Curleys dropped the lawsuit in 2008. They had only one witness prepared to testify that NAMBLA somehow incited one of the convicted criminals in the murder of their son, and the judge ruled the witness was not competent to testify. Robert Curley said, "That was the only link we were counting on ... When they ruled that out, that was the end of the line."

Effects

NAMBLA had been the subject of several law enforcement sting operations and raids. It had also been accused of links in several high-profile child abduction cases, such as the 1979

Etan Patz Etan Kalil Patz (; October 9, 1972 – May 25, 1979) was an American boy who was six years old on May 25, 1979, when he disappeared on his way to his school bus stop in the SoHo neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. His disappearance helped launc ...

case in New York City.Philip Jenkins, pages 157-163 The initial suspect was known to be attracted to young boys, but was eventually determined not to be Patz's murderer. In February 2017, Pedro Hernandez, a clerk in a local bodega in 1979, was convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Patz, based on confessions to police. He is said to have a low IQ and mental health issues.RICK ROJAS, "Pedro Hernandez Found Guilty of Kidnapping and Killing Etan Patz in 1979"
''New York Times'', 14 February 2017; accessed 27 March 2017 NAMBLA denied any connections to crimes, but their public image was already permanently damaged. The gay community has illegitimately been associated with NAMBLA and has since campaigned to make clear that they do not have any ties to the organization.

References

;Sources * Benoit Denizet-Lewis, ''American Voyeur: Dispatches from the Far Reaches of Modern Life'', Simon and Schuster, 2010. * E. Gabriel Perle, Mark A. Fischer, John Taylor Williams, ''Perle & Williams on Publishing Law'', Aspen Publishers Online, 1999. * Philip Jenkins, ''Moral Panic: Changing Concepts of the Child Molester in Modern America'', Yale University Press, 2004. * Wendy Kaminer, ''Free for All: Defending Liberty in America Today'', Beacon Press, 2002. * Robert M. O'Neil, ''The First Amendment and Civil Liability'', Indiana University Press, 2001. * Louis B. Schlesinger, ''Serial Offenders: Current Thought, Recent Findings'', CRC Press, 2000.

Background

Lawsuit

Effects

References

Further reading