In an 8-1 opinion from Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling striking down a federal law that bans images of animal cruelty. The Court’s opinion says the law is “substantially overbroad, and therefore unvalid under the First Amendment.”

From the Opinion:

“While the prohibition of animal cruelty has a long history in American law, there is no evidence of a similar tradition prohibiting depictions of such cruelty.”

CJ Roberts says the law which made it a crime to create, sale, possess depictions of animal cruelty including dog fighting and “crush” videos “creates a criminal prohibition of alarming breadth.” Anyone convicted under the law could have been sentenced up to five years in prison.

Today’s ruling is a huge victory for First Amendment advocates. To that end Chief Justice Roberts says the First Amendment “reflects a judgment by the American people that the benefits of its restrictions on the Government outweigh the costs.”

Justice Samuel Alito was the only dissenter.

Alito says today’s ruling “has the practical effect of legalizing the sale of such videos and is thus likely to spur a resumption of their production….”

Here is part of a press release from the Humane Society of the United States reacting to Tuesday’s ruling:

WASHINGTON (April 20, 2010)–The Humane Society of the United States expressed its disappointment at an opinion issued by the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a controversial appellate court decision throwing out a key federal anti-cruelty law as unconstitutional, but expressed optimism that Congress will be allowed to draft a more narrowly crafted statute to crack down on the sale of videos showing illegal acts of animal cruelty, including crushing of small animals for sexual gratification and dogfighting.

“The Supreme Court’s decision gives us a clear pathway to enact a narrower ban on the sale of videos depicting malicious acts of cruelty, including animal crush videos and dogfighting,” said Wayne Pacelle, president & CEO of The Humane Society of the United States. “Congress should act swiftly to make sure the First Amendment is not used as a shield for those committing barbaric acts of cruelty, and then peddling their videos on the Internet.”

Click Here for a background article on the case.