On Tuesday, August 27, 2026, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the case of U.S. v. Steven Anderegg that possession of AI-generated pornographic images depicting fictional children in the privacy of one's home remains constitutionally protected speech.

Anderegg was charged with producing, distributing, and possessing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and transferring such material to a minor under the age of sixteen. According to the government, he created these images using Stable Diffusion, a generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) software capable of producing hyper-realistic images of prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit acts.

The court, led by Seventh Circuit Judge John Lee and joined by Judges Doris Pryor and Joshua Kolar, referenced longstanding Supreme Court precedents. While obscenity and certain categories of speech fall outside First Amendment protections, the Court emphasized the special constitutional safeguards extended to the privacy of the home, as established in Stanley v. Georgia (1969).

The ruling noted that prior Supreme Court decisions, including Free Speech Coalition, have rejected government arguments seeking to remove AI-generated materials from the protections recognized in Stanley. The court concluded that 18 U.S.C. § 1466A(b)(1), which criminalizes possession of such materials, is unconstitutional as applied to Anderegg.

The decision distinguished AI-generated images from child sexual abuse material (CSAM) involving actual children, highlighting that the state's compelling interest in protecting children stems from the exploitation involved in producing real CSAM. The court underscored that prohibiting child pornography that does not depict an actual child exceeds the state's interest recognized in earlier rulings such as New York v. Ferber (1982).

This ruling marks a significant interpretation of constitutional protections in the context of emerging AI technologies and their intersection with obscenity and child protection laws.

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