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-i <br /> It has been argued that a'RICO or forfeiture statutebased on obscenity crime <br /> violations threatens to "chill protected speech" because it would permit prosecutors to 410 <br /> seize non-obscene materials from distributors convicted of violating the obscenity <br /> statute. American Civil Liberties Union, Polluting The Censorship Debate: A Summary <br /> And Critique Of The Final Report Of The Attorney General's Commission On . <br /> Pornography at 116-117 (1986). <br /> However, a narrow majority of the United States Supreme Court recently held that <br /> 1 there is no constitutional bar to a state's inclusion of substantive obscenity violations <br /> . among the predicate offenses for its RICO statute. Sapoenfield v. Indiana, 57 U.S.LW. <br /> 4180; 4183-4184 (February 21, 1989). The Court recognized that "any form of criminal <br /> obscenity statute applicable to a bookseller will induce some tendency to <br /> self-censorship and have some inhibitory effect on the dissemination of material not <br /> obscene." Id. at 4184. But the Court ruled that, "the mere assertion of some possible <br /> self-censorship resulting from a statute is not enough to render an anti-obscenity law <br /> unconstitutional under our precedent."• Id. The Court specifically upheld RICO <br /> provisions which increase penalties where there is a pattern of multiple violations of <br /> { obscenity laws. <br /> •• <br /> However, in a companion case, the Court also invalidated a pretrial seizure of a <br /> bookstore and its contents after only a preliminary finding of "probable cause" to <br /> believe that a RICO violation had occurred. Fort Wayne Books, Inc. v. Indiana, 57 <br /> U.S.LW. 4180, 4184-4185 (February 21, 1989). The Court explained there is a <br /> rebuttable presumption that expressive materials are protected by the First <br /> i Amendment. That presumption is not rebutted until the claimed justification for seizure <br /> of materials, the elements of_a RICO violation, are proved in an adversary proceeding. <br /> Id. at 4185. <br /> The Court did not specifically reach the fundamental question of whether seizure of <br /> { the assets of a sexually oriented business such as a bookstore is constitutionally <br /> permissible once a RICO violation is proved. The Court explained: <br /> [F]or the purposes of disposing of this case, we assume without <br /> deciding that bookstores and their contents are forfeitable (like other property <br /> -26- . <br />