In an apparent reversal of decades of U.S. practice, recent federalOffice of Foreign Assets Control regulations bar American companiesfrom publishing works by dissident writers in countries under sanctionunless they first obtain U.S. government approval, the Los Angeles Times reports. Therestriction, condemned by critics as a violation of the FirstAmendment, means that books and other works banned by some totalitarianregimes cannot be published freely in the United States. "It strikes me as very odd," said Douglas Kmiec, a constitutional lawprofessor at Pepperdine University and former constitutional legalcounsel to former Presidents Reagan and Bush. "I think the governmenthas an uphill struggle to justify this constitutionally." Severalgroups, led by the PEN American Center and including Arcade Publishing,have filed suit in U.S. District Court in New York seeking to overturnthe regulations, which cover writers in Iran, Sudan, Cuba, North Koreaand, until recently, Iraq. Violations carry severe reprisals -publishing houses can be fined $1 million, and individual violatorsface up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The regulations have led publishers to scrap plans for volumes on Cubanarchitecture and birds, and publishers complain that the rules threatenthe intellectual breadth and independence of academic journals.
