Robert Stevens maintained a website through which he sold videos that showed pit bulls engaging in dogfights. He was convicted o
f violating a federal statute, 18 U.S.C.S. § 48, that made it a criminal offense to sell depictions of animal cruelty, defined as the maiming, mutilation, torture, wounding, or killing of an animal, that violated the law of the state where the creation, sale, or possession of the depiction of the cruelty occurred. The defendant argued that his conviction should be overturned because the statute was facially invalid under the First Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately agreed with Stevens and overturned his conviction. Explain the reasoning that you believe supports this outcome.
