Whorley was convicted in 2006 and sentenced to 20 years in prison, in part for possessing genuine child pornography. But the Justice Department — perhaps sensing a chance to smuggle bad law onto the back of an unsympathetic defendant — also charged Whorley for having unsavory manga under the recently-enacted Protect Act, which outlaws obscene cartoons depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

While this is admittedly an unusually despicable character, the courts should not be able to use censorship as the basis for imprisonment.

This is clearly the criminalization of thought, and it sets a dangerous precedence.

Another aspect of this is that this legal system slaps the wrist of drunk drivers who have killed someone and then sends another person to prison for 20 years for photos and words. Unbelievable.