Opinion ID: 757585
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Prior Proceeding

Text: 10 In its Complaint of September 13, 1995, Connection sought a declaratory judgment that the Act and its implementing regulations were unconstitutional under the First Amendment, as well as a temporary restraining order 4 and a preliminary and permanent injunction against the enforcement of the Act against Connection. 11 On April 8 and 9, 1996, the district court convened an evidentiary hearing on Connection's motion for preliminary injunction. At the hearing, Connection presented the testimony of Patricia Prementine, the editor for the past twelve years of the magazines published by Connection. Prementine testified that people who believe in the philosophy known as swinging are engaged in an alternative social and sexual lifestyle and believe in sexual freedom and do not believe in sexual monogamy. (J.A. at 44.) Prementine testified that most swingers are married or couples, have been together for a number of years, and are thirty to fifty years old. (J.A. at 49.)Prementine estimated that approximately eighty-five to ninety percent of the persons who place ads in Connection's magazines request that their faces be blocked out. (J.A. at 71.) According to Prementine, and based on her personal experiences and contacts with swingers, privacy and confidentiality are fundamental to the swinging lifestyle because the participants fear that their employers, communities, and families will reject them upon learning of their controversial lifestyle. (J.A. at 50-51.) Prementine asserted that, because of these privacy concerns, Connection's publications serve a critical and unique role to those choosing this alternative lifestyle by presenting information about social activities and functions and allowing a means for connecting with others who share their beliefs. (J.A. at 52-53.) Connection also presented the testimony of Robert McGinley as an expert on the swinging lifestyle. 5 McGinley likewise testified that privacy and confidentiality are very important to swingers. (J.A. at 179-80.) 12 Prementine stated that prior to the passage of the Act, Connection required anyone wishing to place a message in its magazines to sign a release form assuring Connection that he or she was at least twenty-one years of age. (J.A. at 57.) Prementine personally reviewed all the submissions and, if a question arose regarding an individual's age or name, the submission would be returned and necessary verification required. (J.A. at 58-59.) Prementine further testified that when Connection began to make efforts in January 1995 to notify its readers of the new disclosure requirements imposed by the Act and send out its revised advertisement forms, the reader response was low, and there was a significant decline in the number of submissions Connection was receiving. (J.A. at 66-68.) Based solely upon her personal experience and her position as Connection's editor, Prementine opined that the decline in messages was attributable to the passage of the Act. (J.A. at 68.) 13 The government presented the testimony of Dr. Francis Michael Anthony Biro, the Director of Clinical Affairs in the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr. Biro reviewed several issues of Connection's magazines to attempt to find photographs depicting minors by using a rating system of various stages of pubertal development used in adolescent medicine. (J.A. at 124-25.) Dr. Biro testified that the vast majority of the photographs he examined depicted persons in their thirties, forties, and fifties and did not require photographic identification to establish that they were older than the age of majority. (J.A. at 155.) Although Dr. Biro did identify three photographs that he believed depicted persons under the age of eighteen, this testimony conflicted with his earlier deposition testimony, in which he stated that none of the photographs he examined depicted minors. (J.A. at 127, 156-57.) 14 On January 16, 1997, approximately nine months after the date of the hearing, the district court denied Connection's motion for preliminary injunction. Although the district court's ruling primarily relied on its finding that Connection had not demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success on the merits, the court also found that the other factors for analyzing a request for a preliminary injunction did not weigh in favor of granting one. (J.A. at 27-30.) 15 Nonetheless, the district court granted Connection's motion for an injunction pending this appeal of the denial of the preliminary injunction. The district court concluded that, even though there was not a strong likelihood of success on the merits of the appeal, a stay of its order denying the preliminary injunction was warranted both because of the substantial legal questions involved in the case and because Connection would be irreparably harmed, in the form of its potential demise, if it were forced to comply with the statute during the pendency of the appeal. (J.A. at 37-38.) Accordingly, the district court issued an injunction barring the enforcement of the Act against Connection prior to the resolution of this appeal.