General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFor info: The Comstock laws are a set of federal acts
passed by the United States Congress under the Grant administration along with related state laws.[1]: 9 The "parent" act (Sect. 211) was passed on March 3, 1873, as the Act for the Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use. This Act criminalized any use of the U.S. Postal Service to send any of the following items:[2] "Obscene" may be also called in the law texts as "vulgar", "indecent", "filthy,"[3]: 48 and "contraceptive" is an article for "preventing conception."[3]: 49 "Abortifacient" may be "medicine or means for producing or facilitating miscarriage or abortion."[3]: 52 "Sex-toy" might be "instrument or article of indecent or immoral use"[3]: 35, 49 or "instrument or article for self-pollution" [3]: 35 obscenity, contraceptives, abortifacients, sex toys, personal letters with any sexual content or information, or any information regarding the above items.
A similar federal act (Sect. 245) of 1909[4][1]: 8 applied to delivery by interstate "express" or any other common carrier (such as railroad), rather than delivery by the U.S. Post Office. In addition to these federal laws, about half of the states enacted laws related to the federal Comstock laws. These state laws are considered by women's rights activist Mary Dennett[1]: 9 to also be "Comstock laws". The laws were named after their chief proponent, U.S. Postal Inspector and anti-vice activist Anthony Comstock. Comstock received a commission from the Postmaster General to serve as a special agent for the U.S. Post Office Department.[5]
In Washington, D.C., where the federal government had direct jurisdiction, another Comstock act (Sect. 312) also made it illegal (punishable by up to five years at hard labor), to sell, lend, or give away any "obscene" publication, or article used for contraception or abortion.[5] Section 305 of the Tariff Act of 1922 forbade the importation of any contraceptive information or means.[1]: 8
Numerous failed attempts were made to repeal or modify these laws, and many of them (or portions of them) were declared unconstitutional. In a 1919 issue of the Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, Judge J. C. Ruppenthal, after reviewing the various laws (especially state laws) called the set of acts "haphazard and capricious" and lacking "any clear, broad, well-defined principle or purpose".[3]: 50 '
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comstock_laws
Traildogbob
(8,893 posts)Thom Hartmann detailed it just like this with complete history. Glad to have it in print here for reference. Gonna text copy to myself. Thanks.
Freakin scary if the court follows this as precedent thats not moveable. Alito and Thomas may demand this stand verbatim.
Deuxcents
(16,446 posts)SalviaBlue
(2,918 posts)This is so whacked!
Fuck these laws based on the beliefs of fragile men from centuries past.
Buzz cook
(2,474 posts)At the time the law was passed.
Since those things are now legal (except those things that are so vague they can't be defined) the law has no bearing on them.
The Comstock Acts are the federal equivalent of laws against swearing while driving.
no_hypocrisy
(46,309 posts)is hand delivery by a non-postal employee to be within the constricts of the Comstock Laws.
I believe these laws were used to prosecute Margaret Sanger when she crusaded for birth control in the early 20th century.