A Union County man is challenging — with pushback from Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman — a 2024 law that criminalized the possession of child sex dolls.  Kenneth Moore, 50, was charged in August, according to court records, with a total of 16 counts of possession or viewing matter po rtraying a sexual performance by a minor, promoting a sexual performance by a minor less than 16 years of age and one count of trafficking a child sex doll — all felonies.  In February, Moore asked the Union Circuit Court to declare House Bill 207 unconstitutional and dismiss the charges against him related to that law.  According to Moore’s petition, the child sex doll in question was “homemade, essentially papier-mached out of different materials with the head of some sort of doll attached.”  Kenneth Moore. (Photo provided by the attorney general) “There is nothing to indicate what differentiates features of a minor from those with features of an adult,” says the petition filed by Moore’s lawyer. “So, what some may assume is a child sex doll, could really in fact be an adult sex doll. Or what some may view as resembling a child, could in fact be resembling an adult.”  It also reports police officers who were executing a search warrant in Moore’s apartment saw “homemade sex dolls that they believed resembled children.” They also found “dozens of photographs and videos” of allegedly “computer generated images of child pornography.”  “At no point was any child abused,” Moore’s petition states.  The petition also argues owning a child sex doll is a form of expression protected by the First Amendment, saying it is “both an act of expression and a masturbatory tool.”  In a legal response filed Wednesday, Coleman, the attorney general, defended HB  207, enacted into law in 2024, saying it does “not infringe on Moore’s constitutional rights to speech, expression, or due process. His motion should be denied.”  Coleman also wrote that “child sex dolls are not a form of protected speech or expression” saying this type of doll is “a particularly harmful sexual device. And sexual devices aren’t protected under the First Amendment.”   HB 207 as ‘unconstitutionally vague’  HB 207, which had bipartisan support and was signed into law by Gov. Andy Beshear, made it a felony to own, sell or otherwise traffic child sex dolls. The law also criminalized the use of artificial intelligence to create child pornography or to create fake images that use real children as the source.  Moore’s petition to dismiss the charges against him argues that the law is “unconstitutional on its face” for several reasons, including the definition of “child sex doll” being “unconstitutionally vague and given to arbitrary enforcement.” The law defines it this way: “‘Child sex doll’ means an anatomically correct or anatomically precise doll, mannequin, or robot that may consist of an entire body, pelvis, or any other body part, with features of, or with features that resemble, those of a minor and intended for use in sexual acts.”  Moore, in his motion to dismiss, argues: “There is no evidence that possession of a sex doll, even one which is built to resemble a minor, which in this case has been construed to merely be a petite female, causes harm to any other person.”  Read Moore’s petition Moore’s Petition to Dismiss A ‘fundamental duty to protect children’  Rep. Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood. (LRC Public Information) In Coleman’s Wednesday filing, the attorney general called the arguments for dismissal “absurd.”  “It’s easily understandable that to be a child sex doll, the object must be intended for that particular use,” Coleman wrote. “Moore’s statement that a child sex doll is ‘a masturbatory tool’ acknowledges the intended use for such a doll.”  And, Coleman added: “The child sex dolls seized from Moore weren’t the sort of harmless toys he mentions in his motion.”  As HB 207 made its way through the legislative process, experts testified that people who have deep fake porn or child sex dolls are often real-life perpetrators — or will go on to be.  Jeremy Murrell, the deputy commissioner for counter exploitation in the attorney general’s office, testified in January 2024 that  people who “utilize or abuse these dolls also go on to be hands-on offenders, if they haven’t done so already.”   Rep. Stephanie Dietz, R-Edgewood, sponsored HB 207. She said in a statement provided to the Lantern that her law “reflects our fundamental duty to protect children.”  “Dolls manufactured to look like children for the purpose of sexual gratification are not protected speech,” Dietz said. “They normalize and reinforce harmful sexual interests toward minors, and the state has every right to act before that harm manifests into action. House Bill 207 was a measured, lawful use of our authority to safeguard the well-being of children and our communities.” This story may be updated.  Read the attorney general’s response AG response to MOORE GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE The post KY man challenges constitutionality of child sex doll ban. AG pushes back. appeared first on The Lexington Times. ...read more read less