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It was a sad day yesterday for animals all across America:

In a major First Amendment ruling, the Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down a federal law that made it a crime to create or sell dogfight videos and other depictions of animal cruelty.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority in the 8-to-1 decision, said that the law had created "a criminal prohibition of alarming breadth" and that the government's aggressive defense of the law was "startling and dangerous."

Startling and dangerous? Really?

Perhaps the law was written too broadly and can be improved, as the Humane Society of America (HSUS) would like Congress to work towards:

"The Supreme Court's decision gives us a clear pathway to enact a narrower ban on the sale of videos depicting malicious acts of cruelty, including animal crush videos and dogfighting," said Wayne Pacelle, president & CEO of The Humane Society of the United States. "Congress should act swiftly to make sure the First Amendment is not used as a shield for those committing barbaric acts of cruelty, and then peddling their videos on the Internet."

Also, according to the HSUS press release:

Before the law was enacted in 1999, there were approximately 3,000 of these horrific videos available in the marketplace, selling for up to $300 apiece but after Congress enacted the law with overwhelming bipartisan support, that market all but disappeared. However, since a federal appellate court declared the law unconstitutional in July 2008, crush videos have once again proliferated on the Internet.

So, the sooner that Congress can re-write this law, the better. Perhaps next time they'll have more than just one Supreme Court Justice on the side of banning animal cruelty:

Justice Samuel Alito dissented, noting that the majority has struck down "a valuable statute that was enacted not to suppress speech, but to prevent horrific acts of animal cruelty--in particular, the creation and commercial exploitation of crush videos, a form of depraved entertainment that has no social value." Justice Alito explained that "the animals used in crush videos are living creatures that experience excruciating pain. Our society has long banned such cruelty, which is illegal throughout the country."

Amen to Alito, that's for sure....

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