Seventh Circuit Says Home Possession of AI-Generated Child Porn Is Constitutionally Protected

The appellate panel in U.S. v. Anderegg, comprising Judges John Lee, Doris Pryor and Joshua Kolar, concluded that a conviction for home possession of AI-generated child sexual imagery violates the First Amendment. Prosecutors said the defendant used Stable Diffusion to create hyper-realistic pictures of pre-pubescent children, but the court focused on the possession element and found the PROTECT Act’s obscenity clause inapplicable to virtual depictions lacking real victims.

Relying on Stanley v. Georgia’s safeguard of private home use and the Supreme Court’s Free Speech Coalition ruling, the judges rejected the government’s claim that the images are indistinguishable from actual child pornography. A concurring opinion warned that rapid AI advances may soon require fresh Supreme Court guidance. The ruling does not affect the pending production and distribution charges against the defendant.