Abstract
The Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) was designed to enhance penalties for criminal enterprises associated with organized crime. But RICO has increasingly come to be applied in ways that threaten First Amendment expression. The statute - and its state counterparts - permits draconian remedies including confiscation of property involved in and proceeds derived from a prohibited activity. In the case of obscenity, RICO prosecutions pose a danger of chilling speech that is controversial or socially unpopular.
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