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LOS ANGELES—Today, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) filed a petition with the California Supreme Court seeking a review of a recent decision published by the Second District Court of Appeal, Division Three, which upheld the dismissal of AHF’s lawsuit seeking to compel Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) to enforce regulations requiring condom use in adult films.

“The petition asks an important question: What is the role of state courts when a petitioner credibly alleges that an agency has only taken minimal, ineffective actions amounting to ‘just talk?’”

The petition filed today with the California Supreme Court argues that there are a number of reasons for the Supreme Court to grant a review of the decision. Among those is the fact that the issue at stake affects the health of all Californians. The petition states: “The statutes in question involve the duty of public health officers to protect the public from the spread of communicable diseases in general, and sexually transmitted diseases in particular.

Everyone in the state will benefit from this Court’s opinion on the extent to which county departments of public health are immune from judicial scrutiny with respect to the actions the agencies takes (or will not take) to fulfill their statutory duty to combat the spread of communicable diseases in the face of a widely acknowledged epidemic.”

Another reason cited: “The Second District’s restricted view… means, as a practical matter, that the Los Angeles DPH can and will continue its course of doing virtually nothing to address the current STD crisis – to the detriment of the health of numerous Californians who will become sick as a result of the agency’s dithering. It also means that other Departments of Public Health throughout the state will be encouraged to follow suit, knowing any neglect in discharging their public health duties will go unseen by the courts.”

“The Department of Public Health has a responsibility to try and control the spread of STDs in LA County, especially in commercial venues. The few steps that DPH has undertaken to address the issue of the spread of STDs in the adult film industry amounts to ‘just talk,’” said Michael Weinstein [pictured], President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “AHF’s question to the Supreme Court is: Is the LA County Department of Public Health immune from judicial review and unaccountable to the public for its conduct?”

Filed in July 2009, AHF’s original lawsuit asked the court to order Los Angeles County to enforce regulations that require condom use in adult film production or take other “reasonable steps” to stem the spread of the disease. The lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles (Case No.: BS121665) and sought a writ of mandate “compelling the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to discharge its duty to combat an acknowledged epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases stemming from production of hardcore pornography in Los Angeles County.”

AHF filed the petition after exhausting all other methods to compel the County to fulfill its obligation to protect the public’s health in the wake of numerous reported cases of HIV among performers. At that time, AHF had urged the County to better monitor HIV and STD prevention in the region’s adult film industry—and require condom use—or to shut down porn sets.

The fact that the DPH is aware of the ongoing pervasive sexually transmitted disease crisis in LA’s pornography industry is well documented. DPH has cited numerous figures confirming an STD epidemic among performers in adult films, including the fact that performers in hardcore pornography are ten times more likely to be infected with a sexually transmitted disease than members of the population at large.

According to figures cited by DPH, there were 2,013 documented cases of Chlamydia among LA porn performers between 2003 and 2007. In the same period, 965 cases of gonorrhea were documented. Many performers suffer multiple infections. In the period April 2004 to March 2008 there have been 2,847 STD infections diagnosed among 1,884 performers in the hardcore industry in LA County. DPH attributes the epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases in the porn industry to a lack of protective equipment for partners, including condoms. The agency recommends condoms be used during production, but has never taken steps to ensure their use, or to protect the performers who are essentially required to endanger their health in order to remain employed.

“The petition asks an important question: What is the role of state courts when a petitioner credibly alleges that an agency has only taken minimal, ineffective actions amounting to ‘just talk?’” said Laura Boudreau, Assistant General Counsel for AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “What level of deference is appropriate here, when the Legislature has essentially decreed that the agency must act zealously, comprehensively and effectively in responding to a public health crisis? If a court may not scrutinize an agency’s conduct for compliance, then who can?”