The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that law enforcement officers investigating sexual predators are permitted to pose as children to build a case.

They ruled that the First Amendment does not offer protection for criminals. The ruling came in the case of Frank Gagliardi who was convicted of attempting to entice a child to engage in prohibited sexual activity.        

His lawyers argued the law used to convict him required an actual child victim in order for their client to be found guilty. But the court disagreed. They ruled that requiring law enforcement to use an actual child as a decoy would significantly impede these investigations and that the law itself was clear – a real child is not necessary to file charges.

The panel also rejected Gagliardi’s argument that the law “impermissibly suppresses fantasy speech with adults who happen to be posing as minors.” The court said it had already concluded in previous cases that speech is not protected by the First Amendment when it is the “very vehicle of the crime itself.”

The panel noted that its findings were in line with similar decisions by six other appeals panels across the country. Gagliardi was 62 in July 2005 when he began chatting with an adult government informant who posed as a 13-year-old, “Lorie.”

The informant met Gagliardi in an Internet chat room called “I Love Older Men,” authorities said. FBI agents arrested him in October 2005 as he waited in his car, believing he was there to meet two 13-year-old girls with whom he had sexually explicit online conversations. The girls were actually agents posing as youngsters.