The Justice Department today lost the first major test case of the federal obscenity laws when a judge in Pittsburgh threw out an indictment of Extreme Associates, a California company that makes films of women being gang-raped, defecated on and having their throats slit.

U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster granted a motion to dismiss filed by Extreme owners Rob Zicari and Janet Romano, who argued that the obscenity statutes as applied in their case violate the constitutional protections of liberty and privacy.

Zicari and Romano were indicted in Pittsburgh in 2003 by U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, and the case was being closely watched by the porn industry.

Lawyers and federal prosecutors were still reading the 45-page opinion this afternoon.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.