OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
Office of Research Legislative Budget
www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office
H.B. 556 Bill Analysis
135th General Assembly
Click here for H.B. 556’s Fiscal Note
Version: As Introduced
Primary Sponsor: Rep. Matthews
Effective date:
Sarah A. Maki, Attorney
SUMMARY
▪ Modifies the affirmative defense for pandering obscenity as follows:
 The affirmative defense does not apply if the material or performance involved was
disseminated or presented for a bona fide educational purpose.
 The affirmative defense does not apply to a teacher, unless the individual is a health
or biology teacher or a faculty member.
 The affirmative defense does not apply to school librarians.
DETAILED ANALYSIS
Affirmative defense to pandering obscenity
Current law, unchanged by the bill, prohibits a person, with knowledge of the character
of the material or performance involved, from doing any of the following:1
▪ Creating, reproducing, or publishing any obscene material, when the offender knows
that the material is to be used for commercial exploitation or will be publicly
disseminated or displayed, or when the offender is reckless in that regard;
▪ Promoting or advertising for sale, delivery, or dissemination; selling, delivering, publicly
disseminating, publicly displaying, exhibiting, presenting, renting, or providing; or
offering or agreeing to sell, deliver, publicly disseminate, publicly display, exhibit,
present, rent, or provide any obscene material;
1 R.C. 2907.32(B).
September 9, 2024
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
▪ Creating, directing, or producing an obscene performance, when the offender knows
that it is to be used for commercial exploitation or will be publicly presented, or when
the offender is reckless in that regard;
▪ Advertising or promoting an obscene performance for presentation, or presenting or
participating in presenting an obscene performance, when the performance is
presented publicly, or when admission is charged;
▪ Buying, procuring, possessing, or controlling any obscene material with purpose to
violate the prohibitions listed in the second and fourth bullet points above.
A violation of any of the prohibitions listed above is pandering obscenity.2 Under current
law, the affirmative defense for pandering obscenity applies if the material or performance
involved was disseminated or presented for a bona fide medical, scientific, educational,
religious, governmental, judicial, or other proper purpose, by or to a physician, psychologist,
sociologist, scientist, teacher, person pursuing bona fide studies or research, librarian,
clergyman, prosecutor, judge, or other person having a proper interest in the material or
performance.
The bill modifies the affirmative defense for pandering obscenity in three ways.
▪ First, the affirmative defense does not apply if the material or performance involved
was disseminated or presented for a bona fide educational purpose.
▪ Second, the affirmative defense does not apply to a “teacher,” unless the individual is a
health or biology teacher or a “faculty member.”
▪ Third, the affirmative defense does not apply to a “school librarian.”
Under the bill, the affirmative defense for pandering obscenity applies if the material or
performance involved or disseminated or presented for a bona fide medical, scientific, religious,
governmental, judicial, or other proper purpose, by or to a physician, psychologist, sociologist,
scientist, health or biology teacher, faculty member, person pursuing bona fide studies or
research, librarian, other than a school librarian, member of the clergy, prosecutor, judge, or
other person having a proper interest in the material or performance.3
Penalty
The bill retains the current law penalty for a violation of the offense as a fifth degree
felony. If the offender previously has been convicted of a violation of pandering obscenity or
disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, the penalty for a violation of the offense is a fourth
degree felony.4
2 R.C. 2907.32(D).
3 R.C. 2907.32(C).
4 R.C. 2907.32(D).
P a g e |2 H.B. 556
As Introduced
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
Definitions
The bill uses the following definitions in the bill:
▪ “Faculty member” means any person who is tasked with providing academic research or
teaching at a private or public institution of higher education.5
▪ “Other person having a proper interest” does not include a teacher who is not a health
or biology teacher or a school librarian.6
▪ “School librarian” means a librarian employed by a school district, other public school,
or chartered nonpublic school and a librarian employed in a school district public
library.7
▪ “Teacher” means all persons licensed to teach and who are employed in the public
schools of Ohio as instructors, principals, supervisors, superintendents, or in any other
educational position for which the State Board of Education requires licensure under
specified Revised Code provisions and who are employed in an educational position, as
determined by the State Board of Education, under programs provided for by federal
acts or regulations and financed in whole or in part from federal funds, but for which no
licensure requirements for the position can be made under the provisions of such
federal acts or regulations. “Teacher” also includes an individual who has a teacher
certification from a nonchartered, nontax-supported school.8
Technical changes
The bill makes necessary cross-reference changes.9
HISTORY
Action Date
Introduced 05-15-24
ANHB0556IN-135/ts
5 R.C. 2907.32(A)(1) and 3365.01, not in the bill.
6 R.C. 2907.32(A)(2).
7 R.C. 2907.32(A)(3) and 3301.0711 and 3375.14 to 3375.18, not in the bill.
8 R.C. 2907.32(A)(4) and 3319.09 and 3301.071, not in the bill.
9 R.C. 2907.35(A)(1).
P a g e |3 H.B. 556
As Introduced


Statutes affected:
As Introduced: 2907.32, 2907.35