On January 20, 2005, District Court Judge Gary L. Lancaster dropped the charges, agreeing with the defense that the federal anti-obscenity statutes were unconstitutional, as they violated a person's fundamental right to possess and view whatever they want in the privacy of their own home. As a fundamental right had been violated, the government had to establish that a compelling state interest was involved. The prosecution argued that the government had a legitimate interest in protecting adults from unwitting exposure to obscenity, and protecting children from exposure to obscenity. These arguments were rejected by the court, which also ruled that the federal obscenity laws were not narrow enough to meet these interests, and could not justify a complete ban on obscene material. Lancaster ruled that children and unwitting adults are protected from the content because the website requires a credit card to join, and because software is available by which parents can restrict children's access to Internet pornography. The court did agree with the government that "Lawrence" had not created a new broad fundamental right to engage in any private sexual conduct. Instead the court relied on "Stanley", which had established there was a fundamental right to private possession of obscene material. The court did rely on "Lawrence" for its assertion that the government could not use public morality as a legitimate state interest which justified the infringement of consensual, adult, private sexual conduct. The court also made reference to the dissenting opinion of Justice Scalia, who said that "Lawrence" had questioned the validity of U.S. obscenity laws, since the government could not enforce a moral code of conduct. Judge Lancaster also cited numerous constitutional scholars who had observed that the "Lawrence" ruling calls federal obscenity laws into question.