The US 5th Circuit Court has slapped down the District Attorney of Tyler County who was trying to bring criminal charges against streaming giant Netflix.
Tyler County DA Lucas Babin is not a fan of the French film "Cuties." In fact he is so disgusted by it that he had two different Grand Juries in Tyler County, just northeast of Houston, level indictments against the company Netflix.
The criminal charges were for promoting sexual conduct by a child under age 18. Never mind that the star of the film is over age 18, and there are not any sexually explicit scenes in the movie. Netflix originally showed the film during the COVID lockdown.
Babin showed the Grand Jury parts, but not all of the film, to get his indictments.
Netflix went to federal court, saying the film was well within the protections of the First Amendment. After a seven-hour federal court hearing, a judge issued an injunction, halting the prosecution.
Babin appealed, but instead of getting support, the conservative 5th Circuit court took Babin to task for acting in bad faith and upheld Netflix's right to broadcast the film, holding that Babin could not bring the criminal case against the company.
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