[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 49 (Monday, December 13, 1999)]
[Pages 2557-2558]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing Legislation To Establish Federal Criminal Penalties 
for Commerce in Depiction of Animal Cruelty

December 9, 1999

    Today I have signed into law H.R. 1887, a bill that would establish 
Federal criminal penalties for the ``creation, sale, or possession'' of 
``a depiction of animal cruelty'' with the intent to distribute such a 
depiction in interstate or foreign commerce, except when the depiction 
has ``serious religious, political, scientific, educational, 
journalistic, historical, or artistic value.''
    I strongly support the objectives of this legislation. Its enactment 
should assist in reducing or eliminating some of the deplorable and 
indefensible practices that were identified during the Congress's 
deliberations on the bill and described in the House Judiciary Committee 
report on the bill.
    Concerns were raised, however, during congressional consideration of 
H.R. 1887 that its application in certain contexts may

[[Page 2558]]

violate the First Amendment of the Constitution. It is important to 
avoid constitutional challenge to this legislation and to ensure that 
the Act does not chill protected speech. Accordingly, I will broadly 
construe the Act's exception and will interpret it to require a 
determination of the value of the depiction as part of a work or 
communication, taken as a whole. So construed, the Act would prohibit 
the types of depictions, described in the statute's legislative history, 
of wanton cruelty to animals designed to appeal to a prurient interest 
in sex. I will direct the Department of Justice to enforce the Act 
accordingly.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
December 9, 1999.

Note: H.R. 1887, approved December 9, was assigned Public Law No. 106-
152.