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References

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2021

Robert Corn-Revere
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The Mind of the Censor and the Eye of the Beholder
The First Amendment and the Censor's Dilemma
 , pp. 289 - 357
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Primary Sources

and made himself the first of its kept professors.” Mencken, H. L., A Book of Prefaces 255 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1917).Google Scholar
that marks American prudishness. Broun, Heywood and Leech, Margaret, Anthony Comstock: Roundsman of the Lord 229–230 (New York: Albert & Charles Boni, Inc., 1927) (“Broun and Leech”).Google Scholar
the television medium they so love is nothing but a “vast wasteland.” Minow, Newton N., Television and the Public Interest, Speech Before the National Association of Broadcasters (May 9, 1961) (“Vast Wasteland Speech”). See also Corn-Revere, Robert, Avast Ye Wasteland: Reflections on America’s Most Famous Exercise in “Public Interest” Piracy, 55 Fed. Comm. L. J. 481 (2003).Google Scholar
because of their attractiveness and manner of exhibition.” Mutual Film Corp. v. Ohio Industrial Commission, 236 US 230 (1915).Google Scholar
protected in the same way as newspapers and books, Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, 343 US 495 (1952).Google Scholar
to censor expression in advance of publication – was strictly limited; Near v. Minnesota, 283 US 697 (1931).Google Scholar
discussions of intimate subjects could be banned only if they were “prurient” and utterly lacked redeeming social value. Roth v. United States, 354 US 476 (1957).Google Scholar
to “sharpen our enforcement blade.” Testimony of Michael K. Powell, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission, Before the United States Senate, Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, at 3 (Feb. 11, 2004).Google Scholar
that penalty was thrown out as “arbitrary and capricious,” and the fine was refunded. CBS Corporation v. FCC, 663 F. 3d 122 (3rd Cir. 2011), cert. denied, 132 S. Ct. 2677 (2012).Google Scholar
and the most searched event online according to Google. Charney, Ben, Jackson’s Super Bowl Flash Grabs TiVo Users, CNET, Feb. 2, 2004 (www.cnet.com/news/jacksons-super-bowl-flash-grabs-tivo-users/); Janet’s Breast Makes Net History, BBC News, Feb. 5, 2004 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3461459.stm).Google Scholar
was a waste of taxpayer dollars. Lester, Will, Poll: Janet Jackson Act Not a Federal Case, Associated Press, Feb. 21, 2004 (https://web.archive.org/web/20040312001041/ http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AP_POLL_JANET_JACKSON?SITE=NJASB&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT).Google Scholar
but it wasn’t illegal censorship. Donald Sterling Banned for Life by the NBA for “Deeply Disturbing” Comments, CBS News, Apr. 29, 2014 (www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-sterling-banned-for-life-by-the-nba-for-deeply-disturbing-comments/).Google Scholar
(although the league later vacillated on that policy). McDonell-Parry, Amelia, Why the NFL Put Its New Kneeling Policy on Hold, Rolling Stone, Jul. 20, 2018 (www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-sports/why-nfl-put-new-kneeling-protest-policy-on-hold-701802/).Google Scholar
that was another matter entirely. Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University v. Trump, 928 F. 3d 226 (2nd Cir. 2019); Karem v. Trump, 960 F.3d 656 (DC Cir. 2020); CNN v. Trump, No. 18-cv-2610 (DDC Nov. 16, 2018); Pen America v. Trump, 448 F. Supp.3d 309 (SDNY 2020).Google Scholar
“fake news” (as is done under European law). E.g., Minow, Mary, The Changing Ecosystem of News and Challenges for Freedom of the Press, 64 Loyola Law. Rev. 499 (2018); Tim, Wu, Is the First Amendment Obsolete?, 117 Mich. Law. Rev. 547 (2018).Google Scholar
to prevent them from enforcing such policies on their own. French, David, Josh Hawley’s Internet Censorship Bill Is an Unwise, Unconstitutional Mess, Reason.com, Jun. 20, 2019 (www.nationalreview.com/2019/06/josh-hawley-internet-censorship-bill-unconstitutional/).Google Scholar
“Self-assurance has always been the hallmark of a censor.” Florida Bar v. Went For It, Inc., 515 US 618, 645 (1995) (Kennedy, J., dissenting).Google Scholar
“[t]heir very cocksureness is their chief source of strength.” Mencken, A Book of Prefaces, supra, at 245.Google Scholar
in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.” West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 US 624, 642 (1943).Google Scholar
by an official smacks of an ideology foreign to our system.” Hannegan v. Esquire, 327 US 146, 158 (1946).Google Scholar
“one man’s vulgarity is another man’s lyric.” Cohen v. California, 403 US 15, 25 (1971).Google Scholar
to persuade them of the need for his 1873 federal obscenity law. Schwartz, J. C., Federal Censorship: Obscenity in the Mail (New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, Inc., 1961);Google Scholar
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and the suppressor is gratified by finding his vice.” See Broun and Leech, supra, at 273.Google Scholar
examples of such public hypocrisy “are too multitudinous to permit a detailed inventory.” Ernst, Morris L and Seagle, William, To the Pure – A Study of Obscenity and the Censor 14 (New York: Viking Press, 1928).Google Scholar
because of a habit of masturbation.” Ernst, Morris L. and Schwartz, Alan U., Censorship – The Search for the Obscene 29–30 (New York: The McMillan Co. 1964) (“Ernst and Schwartz”).Google Scholar
sex is a weak second.” Hentoff, Nat, Free Speech for Me But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other 1 (New York: Harper Collins, 1992).Google Scholar
so is euphemistic evasion. François de La Rochefoucauld, Sentences and Moral Maxims, No. 218.Google Scholar
[employed in] defense of the indefensible.” Orwell, George, Politics and the English Language, reprinted in The Orwell Reader 355, 366 (San Diego: Harcourt, Inc., 1984).Google Scholar
cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.” “Freedom Is about Authority”: Excerpts from Giuliani Speech on Crime, New York Times, Mar. 20, 1994 (www.nytimes.com/1994/03/20/nyregion/freedom-is-about-authority-excerpts-from-giuliani-speech-on-crime.html).Google Scholar
Sigma Alpha Mu canceled the fundraiser. Rampell, Catherine, Today’s Lesson on Campus: “Controversy Prevention,” Washington Post, Apr. 21, 2017, A21.Google Scholar
truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out.” Abrams v. United States, 250 US 616, 630 (1919) (Holmes, J., dissenting).Google Scholar
made it critical that the Supreme Court create doctrine defining freedom of speech. Chafee, Zechariah, Jr., Free Speech in the United States 3 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1941); Chemerinsky, Erwin and Gillman, Howard, Free Speech on Campus 36 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017); Batchis, Wayne, The Right’s First Amendment: The Politics of Free Speech & The Return of Conservative Libertarianism 13 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2016).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
any publication that tended to incite crime or disrespect for the law. Fox v. Washington, 236 US 273 (1915); Patterson v. Colorado, 205 US 454 (1907); Halter v. Nebraska, 205 US 34 (1907); United States ex rel. Turner v. Williams, 194 US 279 (1904); Ex Parte Rapier, 143 US 110 (1892); Ex Parte Jackson, 96 US 727 (1878).Google Scholar
a “verbal act,” not protected expression. Gompers v. Buck’s Stove & Range Co., 221 US 418 (1911).Google Scholar
for circulating anti-draft pamphlets, Schenck v. United States, 249 US 47 (1919).Google Scholar
a newspaper publisher for articles that criticized the war effort, Frohwerk v. United States, 249 US 204 (1919).Google Scholar
Eugene Debs for purportedly obstructing the draft. Debs v. United States, 249 US 211 (1919).Google Scholar
unless “an immediate check is required to save the country.” Abrams v. United States, 250 US 616, 630 (1919) (Holmes, J., dissenting).Google Scholar
wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect knowledge.” Id.Google Scholar
140 years after the Bill of Rights was ratified. Stromberg v. California, 283 US 359 (1931); Near v. Minnesota, 283 US 697 (1931).Google Scholar
even with the mandate or approval of a majority. United States v. Playboy Entertainment Group, Inc., 529 US 803, 818 (2000).Google Scholar
anonymities to turn the color of legal litmus paper.” Abrams v. United States, 250 US 616, 629 (1919) (Holmes, J., dissenting).Google Scholar

Secondary Sources

“a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.” Stanley Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Columbia Pictures, 1964).Google Scholar
to demonstrate the perils of “evil reading.” LaMay, Craig L., America’s Censor: Anthony Comstock and Free Speech, Communications and the Law (Sept. 1997), at 1–59; Paul, James C. N., and Schwartz, Murray L, Federal Censorship: Obscenity in the Mail 18–24 (New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, Inc., 1961) (“Paul and Schwartz”); Heins, supra, at 31–32;Google Scholar
deGrazia, Edward, Girls Lean Back Everywhere 3–4 (New York: Random House, 1992).Google Scholar
Be that as it may, I am sure that the world is better off without them.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 192.Google Scholar
showing off his collection to the horror of many legislators. Broun and Leech, supra, at 131.Google Scholar
on almost any kind of laws for which their vote might be solicited.” Bennett, D. M., Champions of the Church: Their Crimes and Persecutions 1016 (New York: Liberal and Scientific Publishing House, 1878).Google Scholar
Comstock always called it “my law.” Paul and Schwartz, supra, at 22.Google Scholar
“Anthony Comstock himself was the Comstock Act.” Dix, Scott Matthew, When Contraception Was Outlawed! (editor’s preface to Outlawed! How Anthony Comstock Fought and Won the Purity of a Nation xv–xxii (Middletown, DE: Western Conservatory of the Arts and Sciences, 2013) (reprinting Charles Galludet Trumbull, Anthony Comstock, Fighter (1913)).Google Scholar
Comstock didn’t exactly cut a dashing figure. Paul and Schwartz, supra, at 18–19.Google Scholar
They disgrace our land and yet consider themselves ladies. Broun and Leech, supra, at 134.Google Scholar
and New York Sun publisher Moses S. Beech. Boyer, Paul S., Purity in Print 5–7 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1968).Google Scholar
an independent organization, the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. LaMay, supra, at 15–17; Blanchard, Margaret A., The American Urge to Censor: Freedom of Expression Versus the Desire to Sanitize Society – From Anthony Comstock to 2 Live Crew, William & Mary Law Review 741–851 (1992); Blanchard, Margaret A. and Semonche, John E., Anthony Comstock and His Adversaries: The Mixed Legacy of This Battle for Free Speech, Communications Law & Policy 317–366 (Summer 2006).Google Scholar
stressing their “personal interest” in the legislation. Carlson, Allan, Pure Visionary, Touchstone – A Journal of Mere Christianity (Jun. 2009).Google Scholar
and Senator William Windom introduced it in the Senate. Broun and Leech, supra, at 129–132; Paul and Schwartz, supra, at 22.Google Scholar
took the bill home to work on it and to combine it with other legislative proposals. Bates, Anna Louise, Weeder in the Garden of the Lord: Anthony Comstock’s Life and Career 81–84 (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, Inc., 1995).Google Scholar
supported resolutions that would have allowed legal presumptions to enforce Christian morality. Werbel, Amy, Lust on Trial 67 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018).Google Scholar
The bill that emerged was all encompassing. Paul and Schwartz, supra, at 22–23; Trumbull, Charles Galludet, Anthony Comstock, Fighter 85–91 (1913).Google Scholar
very few men here that the young men of today can safely pattern after. Broun and Leech, supra, at 138–139.Google Scholar
But he was not criticized publicly – at least not by the politicians. Paul and Schwartz, supra, at 22.Google Scholar
They knew he was there at the behest of powerful benefactors. Boyer, supra, at 5–10.Google Scholar
a joint-stock company organized to finance the building of the transcontinental railroad. Broun and Leech, supra, at 129–132; Paul and Schwartz, supra, at 18.Google Scholar
Comstock’s purity campaign was just the ticket.” Blanchard, The American Urge to Censor, supra, at 747.Google Scholar
All this made talking about smut a welcome distraction. McGarry, Molly H., Spectral Sexualities: Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism, Moral Panics, and the Making of U.S. Obscenity Law, Journal of Women’s History 8–29 (Summer 2000); Long, Kat, The Forbidden Apple, New York Times, Apr. 3, 2009.Google Scholar
it was combined with 15 other proposals that were adopted in a vote at two a.m. LaMay, supra, at 16; Blanchard, The American Urge to Censor, supra, at 748.Google Scholar
despite the fact that, as Congressman Niblack observed, it is “now Sunday morning.” Morone, James A., Hellfire Nation 229 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003).Google Scholar
the clock in the chamber was stopped to preserve the fiction that it was still Saturday night. Ernst and Schwartz, supra, at 31.Google Scholar
affixing his signature as quickly as an attendant could hand him each one, and without the slightest examination. Bennett, Champions of the Church, supra; Giesburg, Judith, Sex and the Civil War 92–95 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017).Google Scholar
including two boys aged eleven and thirteen. Comstock, Anthony, Traps for the Young (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 1883/1967) (editor’s introduction by Robert Bremner); Broun and Leech, supra, at 83–84.Google Scholar
any indecent or immoral use or nature … shall be carried in the mail.” An Act for the Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use, ch. 258, sec. 2, 17 stat. 598, 599 (1873).Google Scholar
carried not just the power to arrest but also free passage on all rail lines that carried the mail. Schroeder, Patricia, Gifts of Speech, Sept. 24, 1996 (http://gos.sbc.edu/s/schroeder.html).Google Scholar
will soon be in the strong grip of government.” Carlson, supra.Google Scholar
will be forgiven to a Congress which thus powerfully sustains the cause of morality.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 144.Google Scholar
During his first ten months as a special agent, he traveled 23,000 miles in search of contraband. Carlson, supra.Google Scholar
he had made fifty-five arrests and obtained twenty convictions under the new federal law. Blanchard, The American Urge to Censor, supra, at 748.Google Scholar
60,300 “rubber articles,” and 3,150 boxes of pills and powders. Broun and Leech, supra, at 153.Google Scholar
the numbers of people arrested and convicted, and even their nationalities. LaMay, supra, at 21–22, 34.Google Scholar
He also took credit for destroying 160 tons of obscene literature and 4 million pictures. Blanchard, The American Urge to Censor, supra, at 758; Broun and Leech, supra, at 15–16; LaMay, supra, at 2; Morone, supra, at 230; Rabban, David M., Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years (London: Cambridge University Press, 1997).Google Scholar
“to the length of 565 years, 11 months, and 20 days” and fines amounting to $237,134.30. Hopkins, Mary Alden, Birth Control and Public Morals: An Interview with Anthony Comstock, Harper’s Weekly, May 22, 1915, at 489–490.Google Scholar
He openly boasted of causing at least fifteen suicides. LaMay, supra, at 18; Morone, supra, at 230.Google Scholar
88,000 newspapers with ads for “sexual materials,” and 20,000 “figures and images.” New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, Forty-Second Annual Report (1916).Google Scholar
twenty-four states adopting what were called “mini-Comstock” statutes by 1885. McGarry, supra; Blanchard, The American Urge to Censor, supra; Carlson, supra, at 751.Google Scholar
By 1920, all but two states had passed such laws. Bates, supra, at 2.Google Scholar
in cities such as Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Louisville, Chicago, St. Louis, and San Francisco. New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, Fifth Annual report (1879); Morone, supra, at 230; Boyer, supra, at 5; Miller, Neil, Banned in Boston 4 (Boston: Beacon Press, 2010).Google Scholar
the first was the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, also known as “the Comstock Society.” Mencken, A Book of Prefaces, supra, at 259.Google Scholar
he finally was able to quit his day job as a dry goods salesman. LaMay, supra, at 17.Google Scholar
the list read “like a Who’s Who of the day.” Boyer, supra, at 6.Google Scholar
and the YMCA wanted some distance from the fray. Blanchard, The American Urge to Censor, supra, at 750.Google Scholar
which may hereafter be enacted for the suppression” of vice. Act of Incorporation, New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, May 16, 1873.Google Scholar
and bring before any court … offenders found violating the provisions of any” state or federal obscenity law. New York Law Sec. 1145; Blanchard, The American Urge to Censor, supra, at 751.Google Scholar
we must not trust to the ordinary officers of the law, and the police to deal with it.” New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, Second Annual Report 9 (Jan. 27, 1876).Google Scholar
“Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” Cogan, Neil H., ed., The Complete Bill of Rights: The Drafts, Debates, Sources, & Origins 83 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).Google Scholar
they would have framed an iron-bound section to prevent it.” Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 223.Google Scholar
Ovid’s Art of Love and Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones (both of which Comstock unsuccessfully tried to suppress in 1894). Ernst and Schwartz, supra, at 34; Anthony Comstock Overruled, New York Times, Jun. 22, 1894; LaMay, supra, at 28.Google Scholar
“[a]ll of the early Presidents enjoyed the frankness and vulgarity of fleshly novels.” Ernst, Morris L. and Seagle, William, To The Pure 256–257 (New York: Viking Press, 1928).Google Scholar
bulged their cheeks in naughty giggles when reading the works of Fielding or Sterne.” Morris L. Ernst, Sex Wins in America, The Nation, Aug. 10, 1932, at 122.Google Scholar
but they hardly bothered our Constitution’s framers. Ernst and Schwartz, supra, at 7.Google Scholar
an obscene, impudent, and indecent posture with a woman.” Commonwealth v. Sharpless, 2 Serg & Rawle 91 (Pa. Sup. Ct. 1815).Google Scholar
the same would be offensive to the court here, and improper to be placed upon the records thereof.” Massachusetts v. Holmes, 17 Mass. 336 (1821); Ernst and Schwartz, supra, at 15–16.Google Scholar
Regina v. Hicklin would set that standard for obscenity, not just in Great Britain but also in the USA. Heins, supra, at 32.Google Scholar
Comstock quickly picked up on the Hicklin rule and successfully applied it in numerous prosecutions. E.g., United States v. Bennett, 24 F. Cas. 1093 (2nd Cir. 1879).Google Scholar
until the Supreme Court finally abandoned it in 1957 because of evolving First Amendment concerns. Roth v. United States, 354 US 476 (1957).Google Scholar
“depraves and corrupts those whose minds are open to such immoral influences.” Regina v. Hicklin, LR 3 QB 360 (Queen’s Bench, 1868).Google Scholar
the test was “laid down before our society ever started.” Comstock, Anthony, Morals Versus Art 17, 26 (New York: J. S. Ogilvie & Company, 1887).Google Scholar
holding that the titles alone were enough to support a conviction. Bennett, Champions of the Church, supra, at 1018.Google Scholar
“I know it when I see it.” Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 US 184, 197 (1964) (Stewart, J., concurring).Google Scholar
ten years later would abandon even that idea as unconstitutional, Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slayton, 413 US 49, 73–74 (1974) (Brennan, J., dissenting, joined by Justices Stewart and Marshall).Google Scholar
Comstock considered the danger of “evil reading” to be worse than yellow fever or smallpox. Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 5–6.Google Scholar
you will have a bid for a life of self-gratification and sin.” Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 14–16.Google Scholar
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to hide the fact of the extra- or nonmarital relations from public view. Beisel, Nicola, Imperiled Innocents: Anthony Comstock and Family Reproduction in Victorian America 36–42 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997).Google Scholar
And if contraceptives fail, abortion then becomes necessary. Trumbull, supra, at 4041; LaMay, supra, at 45.Google Scholar
and an additional 900,000 abortions over a thirty-year period.) Brief Amicus Curiae of 100 Scholars of Marriage in Support of Respondents, Obergefell v. Hodges, No. 14-556 (Supreme Court, 2015), at 3, 22.Google Scholar
he must do it in a decent and lawful manner or not at all.” Comstock, Frauds Exposed, supra, at 408–409.Google Scholar
while “what they intend leads directly to sin and shame.” Bates, supra, at 128.Google Scholar
in his mind, they “added hypocrisy to vice,” Rabban, Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years, supra, at 31.Google Scholar
he used such terms as “infidel,” “free luster,” and “abortionist’s pimp” interchangeably. Bremner, supra, at xvii.Google Scholar
“the howling, ranting, blaspheming mob of repealers.” Comstock, Frauds Exposed, supra, at 393.Google Scholar
as pretext in order to close down publications that offended his religious sensibilities. Jacoby, Susan, Freethinkers 209 (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2004); Jacoby, Susan, The Great Agnostic 100 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013).Google Scholar
to overthrow every social restraint. New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, Fourth Annual Report (1878); Beisel, supra, at 89–90.Google Scholar
corrupts the morals of the young, or destroys all faith in God.” Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 199.Google Scholar
he considered them utterly immoral and anti-Christian. Beisel, supra, at 85–98.Google Scholar
It also was reputed at the time that the widower Vanderbilt became Tennie’s lover. Bates, supra, at 72; Heins, supra, at 31; Werbel, Lust on Trial, supra, at 60.Google Scholar
addressing the House Judiciary Committee in 1871 on behalf of the Women’s Rights Association. Bates, supra, at 72; Broun and Leech, supra, at 95, 111.Google Scholar
“servitude of the hardest kind, and just for board and clothes, at that.” MacPherson, Myra, The Scarlet Sisters: Sex, Suffrage, and Scandal in the Gilded Age 63–64 (New York: Twelve Books, 2014).Google Scholar
she proclaimed, “We mean treason!” Bates, supra, at 72–73.Google Scholar
the iniquity and morbidness in which she now wallows for existence.” Bates, supra, at 72–73.Google Scholar
neither you nor any law you can frame have any right to interfere. Woodhull, Victoria, And the Truth Shall Make You Free: A Speech on the Principles of Social Freedom (Address at Steinway Hall, New York, Nov. 20, 1871).Google Scholar
the first American newspaper to publish Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto. Bates, supra, at 71.Google Scholar
“burst like a bombshell into the ranks of the moralistic social camp.” Woodhull, Victoria, The Beecher-Tilton Scandal Case, The Woodhull and Clafin Weekly, Nov. 2, 1872.Google Scholar
preaching one set of values while practicing another. Woodhull, The Beecher-Tilton Scandal Case, supra; Applegate, Debby, The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher 422 (New York: Image Books, 2006); Broun and Leech, supra, at 100; Beisel, supra, at 85–86.Google Scholar
and that he shared them with numerous friends. Woodhull, The Beecher-Tilton Scandal Case, supra; Broun and Leech, supra, at 102; Bates, supra, at 73.Google Scholar
and second-hand copies fetched as much as $40 apiece. MacPherson, supra, at 185; Applegate, supra, at 422; Bennett, supra, at 1022; Broun and Leech, supra, at 116.Google Scholar
thus invoking the jurisdiction of federal law. MacPherson, supra, at 186; Broun and Leech, supra, at 102.Google Scholar
a Plymouth Church parishioner and friend of Reverend Beecher. MacPherson, supra, at 186; Paul, James C. N. and Schwartz, Murray L, Federal Censorship: Obscenity in the Mail 20 (New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, Inc., 1961).Google Scholar
the women were whisked off to the Ludlow Street jail, where they languished for weeks. Broun and Leech, supra, at 105; Paul and Schwartz, supra, at 20.Google Scholar
and destroyed 3,000 copies of the Weekly. Heins, supra, at 31.Google Scholar
the carriage attracted a growing procession of onlookers. Bates, supra, at 74.Google Scholar
more sedate in appearance, and of a less lovely turn.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 103.Google Scholar
a gentleman whom the whole country reveres,” the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher. Broun and Leech, supra, at 103.Google Scholar
“the sensational comedy of free love.” MacPherson, supra, at 190; Broun and Leech, supra, at 105.Google Scholar
because they refused to cease selling their newspaper. Bates, supra, at 76.Google Scholar
where she denounced the prosecution as a violation of freedom of the press. MacPherson, supra, at 193.Google Scholar
but was immediately taken into custody. Woodhull and Blood, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jan. 10, 1873, 2; Bates, supra, at 77; Broun and Leech, supra, at 116–118.Google Scholar
the sisters and Colonel Blood were assessed $80,000 in bail. Bennett, Champions of the Church, supra, at 1022.Google Scholar
for running Tammany Hall’s corrupt political machine. MacPherson, supra, at 196; Broun and Leech, supra, at 120.Google Scholar
a drama that “has seldom been surpassed for filthiness of detail.” MacPherson, supra, at 190–191.Google Scholar
Comstock’s fumbling responses were roundly mocked in the press. Bates, supra, at 77; Broun and Leech, supra, at 118–119.Google Scholar
applied to books, pamphlets, and pictures, but not to newspapers or advertisements. Rabban, Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years, supra, at 29; Beisel, supra, at 80; Broun and Leech, supra, at 122.Google Scholar
had inspired him to lobby Congress for expanded authority. Bates, supra, at 76.Google Scholar
The Brooklyn Eagle dubbed the case “An Inglorious Failure.” MacPherson, supra, at 204; Broun and Leech, supra, at 122.Google Scholar
what should have been a matter of local concern. Bates, supra, at 76.Google Scholar
“a dastard’s blow at liberty and law in the United States.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 124–125.Google Scholar
Why should I be?” Bates, supra, at 76; Broun and Leech, supra, at 15.Google Scholar
as well as various radical causes. MacPherson, supra, at 72–73.Google Scholar
dictator of a new government he wanted to form for America. Bates, supra, at 126; Broun and Leech, supra, at 108–109, 111.Google Scholar
he was leery of her free love position. Bates, supra, at 75.Google Scholar
and later some salacious passages from the Old Testament under sensational headlines. Bennett, Champions of the Church, supra, at 1023; Broun and Leech, supra, at 108–110.Google Scholar
“disgusting slanders on Lot, Abraham, Solomon and David.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 110.Google Scholar
Train could pay his bail, yet he refused to do so. Bennett, Champions of the Church, supra, at 1023.Google Scholar
but the court declined to accept a conditional plea. Broun and Leech, supra, at 110–111.Google Scholar
playfully dubbed “the Train matinees.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 112.Google Scholar
“This,” Comstock proclaimed, “is Free Love.” Bates, supra, at 126; Broun and Leech, supra, at 112.Google Scholar
who insinuated that Comstock had acted as a paid informer. Bates, supra, at 126–127; Broun and Leech, supra, at 112–113.Google Scholar
he slipped away to board a ship bound for England. Bates, supra, at 126–127; Broun and Leech, supra, at 111–114.Google Scholar
by comparing his illicit affair to a naval battle. Beisel, supra, at 86.Google Scholar
the satisfaction that had eluded him after the Train fiasco. Bennett, Champions of the Church, supra, at 1023–1024; Bates, supra, at 127–128.Google Scholar
decried the strictures of matrimony and extolled the virtues of sexual freedom. Heins, supra, at 32–33.Google Scholar
a “dull little sociological treatise.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 171.Google Scholar
to very much less than men get for the same work.” Heywood, Ezra H., Cupid’s Yokes 21 (Princeton, MA: Co-Operative Publishing Co., 1876).Google Scholar
committing adultery, and Comstock for despotism and cruelty. Rabban, Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years, supra, at 33.Google Scholar
falsity with which ‘great men’ endeavor to appease, cajole, and defy equivocal public opinion.” Heywood, supra, at 10.Google Scholar
“This is clearly the spirit that ignited the fires of the Inquisition.” Heywood, supra, at 11–12; Broun and Leech, supra, at 193.Google Scholar
Heywood to be the “chief creature” promoting the “vile creed” of free love. Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 163; Rabban, Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years, supra, at 35; Broun and Leech, supra, at 172–173.Google Scholar
an erudite man who was respected in his community that so incensed Comstock. Broun and Leech, supra, at 170–171.Google Scholar
Mr. Heywood must be crushed out and sent to prison.” Bennett, Champions of the Church, supra, at 1060.Google Scholar
“Thus, reader,” Comstock boasted, “the devil’s trapper was trapped.” Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 163–166.Google Scholar
and a medical text entitled Sexual Physiology. Broun and Leech, supra, at 172–174.Google Scholar
selected passages were provided to jurors as they entered the jury room. Broun and Leech, supra, at 174; Rabban, Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years, supra, at 36; Beisel, supra, at 91.Google Scholar
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now by their good service has been settled in our favor.” New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, Fifth Annual Report 14 (1879).Google Scholar
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who had made final revisions to the bill that became the Comstock Act. Broun and Leech, supra, at 177; Bates, supra, at 139.Google Scholar
freedom of the press and to the great hurt of the learned professions.” Beisel, supra, at 92.Google Scholar
Butler “presented” the petition without endorsing its substance. Paul and Schwartz, supra, at 29.Google Scholar
“backed by one of the basest conspiracies ever concocted against a holy cause.” Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 192; Blanchard and Semonche, supra, at 328–332.Google Scholar
the opposition by publishing injurious insinuations against the agent.” New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, Fifth Annual Report, supra, at 6–7.Google Scholar
not established to carry instruments of vice, or obscene writings, indecent pictures, or lewd books.” Beisel, supra, at 92.Google Scholar
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drawing nearly six thousand people to protest Heywood’s conviction. Proceedings of the Indignation Meeting Held in Faneuil Hall, Thursday Evening, Aug. 1, 1878 (Boston: Benj. R. Tucker, 1878).Google Scholar
demanded total repeal of the Comstock law as opposed to more moderate reforms. Rabban, Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years, supra, at 38; Bates, supra, at 135–136.Google Scholar
six months into Heywood’s sentence. Broun and Leech, supra, at 170; Beisel, supra, at 94–95.Google Scholar
“it is no crime by the laws of the United States to advocate the abolition of marriage.” Beisel, supra, at 94–95.Google Scholar
“obscene, lascivious, lewd, or corrupting in the criminal sense.” Blanchard and Semonche, supra, at 333.Google Scholar
destroy all that is lovely and of good report, and who openly boast of their crimes.” New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, Fifth Annual Report, supra, at 9.Google Scholar
a great hindrance to the further enforcement of the law.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 174–175; Bates, supra, at 137–138.Google Scholar
which led to additional arrests and prosecutions. Bates, supra, at 131.Google Scholar
puckishly called the “Comstock Syringe.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 183–184; Beisel, supra, at 98–99; Bates, supra, at 143.Google Scholar
he ceased publishing contraceptive advertisements in The Word, lest he be arrested again. Bates, supra, at 143.Google Scholar
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“fuck,” “penis,” “womb,” “semen,” and “vagina.” Blanchard and Semonche, supra, at 338.Google Scholar
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“who will in the future be classed with murderers.” Bates, supra, at 144.Google Scholar
and who published the leading free-thought journal of the day. Jacoby, Freethinkers, supra, at 209.Google Scholar
everything that degrades or burdens mankind mentally or physically.” Bennett, Champions of the Church, supra.Google Scholar
“the mouthpiece of these moral cancer planters.” Comstock, Frauds Exposed, supra, at 396. Comstock was moved to arrest Bennett in November 1877. Bates, supra, at 138–139.Google Scholar
which mankind could well spare, losing nothing by its rejection?” Bennett, D.M., An Open Letter to Jesus Christ (New York: The Truth Seeker Co., 1876); Beisel, supra, at 90–91.Google Scholar
without regard to the rights, morals or liberties of others.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 175.Google Scholar
the case was hastily dropped in early January 1878 notwithstanding a grand jury indictment. Bennett, Champions of the Church, supra, at 1066.Google Scholar
Ingersoll had campaigned for President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876. Jacoby, Freethinkers, supra, at 209.Google Scholar
a “monstrous conspiracy” to undo his divinely inspired law. Comstock, Frauds Exposed, supra, at 388–515.Google Scholar
a “foul-mouthed libertine” and an “apostle of nastiness.” Comstock, Frauds Exposed, supra, at 495–496.Google Scholar
a first-class Torquemada, Calvin, Alva, Charles IX, or Matthew Hopkins.” Bennett, Champions of the Church, supra, at 1009.Google Scholar
who has labored with more resolution and zest” than Comstock. Bennett, Champions of the Church, supra, at 1010, 1064.Google Scholar
to Washington in 1878 to lobby against the repeal petition. Comstock, Frauds Exposed, supra, at 430.Google Scholar
it could be used as a contraceptive when combined with salicylic acid. Bates, supra, at 139, 141; Beisel, supra, at 94.Google Scholar
boycotted its products on principle. Broun and Leech, supra, at 189.Google Scholar
not just of embarrassment but of unwanted pregnancies. Jacoby, Freethinkers, supra, at 208.Google Scholar
and was arrested under state law. Broun and Leech, supra, at 180; Bates, supra, at 141.Google Scholar
to send Cupid’s Yokes to anyone who wanted it. Rabban, Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years, supra, at 36–37.Google Scholar
advertise Cupid’s something or other, you know what I mean.” Paul and Schwartz, supra, at 25–26; Broun and Leech, supra, at 180.Google Scholar
and not just based on portions the prosecutor selected to read to the jury. United States v. Bennett, 24 F. Cas. 1093, 1099–1100 (2nd Cir. 1879).Google Scholar
improper to be placed on the court records.” United States v. Bennett, 24 F. Cas. at 1094.Google Scholar
passages of the book marked by the prosecutor, which were read to the jury. United States v. Bennett, 24 F. Cas. at 1098–1099.Google Scholar
the United States is one great society for the suppression of vice.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 89; Bremner, supra, at xxix.Google Scholar
It is the prosecution of the United States.” United States v. Bennett, 24 F. Cas. at 1101.Google Scholar
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Bennett’s counsel and friends boasted that a pardon would be granted within ten days. Comstock, Frauds Exposed, supra, at 485; Bates, supra, at 141.Google Scholar
as the petition reportedly garnered 200,000 signatures. Comstock, Frauds Exposed, supra, at 496.Google Scholar
for the same crime for which Heywood had been pardoned? Broun and Leech, supra, at 182.Google Scholar
“[h]e was pardoned because facts were suppressed.” Comstock, Frauds Exposed, supra, at 485–486.Google Scholar
Hayes denied the pardon petition. Broun and Leech, supra, at 182; Bates, supra, at 141–142; Beisel, supra, at 95; Rabban, Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years, supra, at 40–41.Google Scholar
“evidences of this man’s character.” Comstock, Frauds Exposed, supra, at 496–498.Google Scholar
“The Defender of Liberty and Its Martyr.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 182–183.Google Scholar
Morals stand first.” Comstock, Morals Versus Art, supra, at 5.Google Scholar
during the year [1875], but 17 were Americans.” New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, Second Annual report, supra, at 11.Google Scholar
to help “keep undesirable classes from our shores.” New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, Thirty-Fifth Annual report 16 (1909); Blanchard and Semonche, supra, at 346; LaMay, supra, at 34–35.Google Scholar
a quarter of Comstock’s prosecutions in 1915 represented these nationalities. LaMay, supra, at 22.Google Scholar
referring to Shaw as some “Irish smut-dealer.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 230.Google Scholar
to deify this ‘companion of every other crime.’” Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 168–169.Google Scholar
comes in its most insidious, fascinating and seductive form.” Comstock, Morals Versus Art, supra, at 4–5.Google Scholar
making the lascivious conception only the more insidious and demoralizing.” New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, Eighth Annual report 6 (1882).Google Scholar
perhaps to avoid the embarrassment of a high-profile loss at his home base. Blanchard and Semonche, supra, at 344; Beisel, supra, at 167.Google Scholar
enjoyed phenomenal sales because of the controversy. Blanchard and Semonche, supra, at 342–344; Beisel, supra, at 165; Boyer, supra, at 15.Google Scholar
“The Boston fools have already made me more than $2,000.” Miller, Banned in Boston, supra, at 14–17.Google Scholar
so prostituted from what has heretofore been thought to be their proper and legitimate place.” New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, Fifth Annual Report, supra, at 15–17.Google Scholar
“little better than histories of brothels and prostitutes, in these lust-cursed nations.” Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 172, 179.Google Scholar
“death-dealing powers of strychnine are the same whether administered as a sugar-coated pill or in its natural state.” Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 168, 182–183.Google Scholar
simply because clothed in smooth verse or choice rhetoric.” Comstock, Anthony, Vampire Literature, The North American Review 165–166 (Aug. 1891).Google Scholar
only the Italian original could properly be considered a classic. Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 173–176.Google Scholar
“Fifth Avenue has no more rights in this respect than Centre Street or the Bowery.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 223.Google Scholar
the greatest educational benefit to the community.” Beisel, supra, at 172–173.Google Scholar
“subversive to the best interests both of art and morality.” Werbel, Amy, The Crime of the Nude, Winterthur Portfolio (2014), at 266.Google Scholar
galvanized opposition from prominent artists, public intellectuals, and respectable organizations. Werbel, The Crime of the Nude, supra, at 264–266.Google Scholar
in character and effect a very different thing.” Comstock, Morals Versus Art, supra, at 9–10; Beisel, supra, at 176–177.Google Scholar
the siren song of titillating art could be confined in galleries. Comstock, Morals Versus Art, supra, at 8–9.Google Scholar
it served the interests of his wealthy benefactors. Beisel, supra, at 185–187.Google Scholar
“a social nuisance almost as pestilent as that which he exists to abate.” Mr. Comstock’s Censorship, New York Times, Mar. 24, 1888, at 4; Beisel, supra, at 190.Google Scholar
released Comstock’s letters and his response to the press. Werbel, Lust on Trial, supra, at 192193; Beisel, supra, at 178–189.Google Scholar
“he was not dissuaded from his campaign against the arts.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 225; Beisel, supra, at 176, 187–193.Google Scholar
“influencing 60,000 young girls annually to turn to lives of shame.” Werbel, The Crime of the Nude, supra, at 251, 255, 271; Werbel, Lust on Trial, supra, at 268–272, 277.Google Scholar
a nineteen-year-old bookkeeper who handed him a copy of the journal. Werbel, The Crime of the Nude, supra, at 250–251; Werbel, Lust on Trial, supra, at 272.Google Scholar
destroyed somewhere between 2,500 and 3,650 copies of the League’s pamphlet. Bates, supra, at 178–179; Werbel, The Crime of the Nude, supra, at 272; Werbel, Lust on Trial, supra, at 278.Google Scholar
“to anyone who happened to call for them.” Trumbull, supra, at 130–131.Google Scholar
whenever they could find space on a wall for a sketch.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 216–219; Werbel, The Crime of the Nude, supra, at 256; Werbel, Lust on Trial, supra, at 272–274.Google Scholar
with even Life magazine getting in on the fun. Werbel, The Crime of the Nude, supra, at 256–257; Werbel, Lust on Trial, supra, at 273–274.Google Scholar
“preposterous pruriency.” Werbel, The Crime of the Nude, supra, at 268.Google Scholar
after the League’s lawyer cut a backroom deal to allow destruction of the journals. Trumbull, supra, at 175–179; Werbel, The Crime of the Nude, supra, at 272–273; Werbel, Lust on Trial, supra, at 277.Google Scholar
even before the trial began. Werbel, The Crime of the Nude, supra, at 273.Google Scholar
but when they break out, they must be suppressed.” Bates, supra, at 179.Google Scholar
I’ll confiscate your whole stock.” Comstock Dooms September Morning, New York Times, May 11, 1913, at 1.Google Scholar
if I have to spend the value of my entire stock in contesting the point with Mr. Comstock.” Comstock Dooms September Morning, supra, at 1.Google Scholar
because the crowds around the display window kept paying customers from entering the shop. Wearies of Waiting a Comstock Arrest, New York Times, May 15, 1913, at 7.Google Scholar
the Fair’s committee of “Lady Managers,” no further action was taken. Cairo Dances to Go, New York World, Aug. 5, 1893, at 3; Broun and Leech, supra, at 225–228.Google Scholar
can be viewed on YouTube to this day. Little Egypt 1896 (http://youtu.be/zxZoXJBILbc).Google Scholar
Comstock’s objection was that the book dealt with sexual anatomy. Bates, supra, at 79.Google Scholar
“more offensive to decency” than the smut he suppressed. Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 158.Google Scholar
“no reputable physician has ever been prosecuted under these laws.” Hopkins, Birth Control and Public Morals: An Interview with Anthony Comstock, supra, at 489–490.Google Scholar
Abbey was convicted and given a light sentence, although it was never carried out. Bennett, D. M., An open Letter to Samuel Colgate 30–32 (New York: D. M. Bennett, Liberal Publisher, 1879).Google Scholar
provided information on birth control in his publications. Rabban, Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years, supra, at 39; Bates, supra, at 155.Google Scholar
to oppose his 1872 legislative proposal to the New York assembly for an obscenity law. Wood, Janice Ruth, The Struggle for Free Speech in the United States 1872–1915 3–4, 62–83 (New York: Routledge Press, 2008).Google Scholar
Comstock ordered a copy of a Foote pamphlet entitled Words in Pearl. Bates, supra, at 155–156.Google Scholar
Comstock obtained a copy of the pamphlet using a decoy letter and arrested Foote. Wood, supra, at 53–56.Google Scholar
it would “afford an easy way of nullifying the law.” United States v. Foote, 25 F. Cas. 1140 (SDNY 1876).Google Scholar
Foote was convicted and fined $3,500. Bates, supra, at 156; Bennett, Champions of the Church, supra, at 1039.Google Scholar
(although some suggest that he just became more subtle about it). Wood, supra, at 36.Google Scholar
300,000 copies of his popular home guide Medical Common Sense between 1858 and 1876. Rabban, Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years, supra, at 40.Google Scholar
(or the blame, depending on your outlook). Wood, supra, at 5, 62–64.Google Scholar
continued to wage battles for freedom of expression in the early twentieth century. Wood, supra, at 76–81.Google Scholar
in 1873 alone he arrested thirty-five people for advocating contraceptives and secured twenty-five convictions. Bates, supra, at 154.Google Scholar
beginning with her 1878 arrest for selling “a certain article … made of India Rubber and sponge.” Bates, supra, at 166; Wood, supra, at 89.Google Scholar
once again the district attorney declined prosecution. Bennett, An Open Letter to Samuel Colgate, supra, at 35–36.Google Scholar
As before, the grand jury cleared her of the charge. Bates, supra, at 166–168.Google Scholar
Sieckel was sentenced to a $500 fine and a year in prison. Bates, supra, at 103–104.Google Scholar
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“No Gods or Masters.” William Sanger to Fight in Court for Birth Control, New York Times, Sept. 5, 1915.Google Scholar
not just deemed unmailable; they were confiscated. Sanger, Margaret, Comstockery in America, International Socialist Review (1915), at 46–49.Google Scholar
Sanger had 100,000 copies of the small pamphlet distributed to factories and mines throughout the country. Sanger, Comstockery in America, supra.Google Scholar
Can’t everybody, whether rich or poor, learn to control themselves?” Broun and Leech, supra, at 249.Google Scholar
I decided to take an indefinite postponement and left for London.” Sanger, Comstockery in America, supra; Bates, supra, at 198–199.Google Scholar
he looked for a copy “as a special favor to a friend of his wife.” William Sanger to Fight in Court for Birth Control, New York Times, Sept. 5, 1915.Google Scholar
the man returned with Comstock, who promptly arrested Sanger. Sanger, Comstockery in America, supra; Bates, supra, at 198–199; LaMay, supra, at 54–55.Google Scholar
Sanger “lived separate from his family with many artists in the house.” Bates, supra, at 199.Google Scholar
including Alexander Berkman and labor activist Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, later a founding member of the ACLU. Disorder in Court as Sanger Is Fined, New York Times, Sept. 11, 1915.Google Scholar
they would be rendering society a greater service.” Disorder in Court as Sanger Is Fined, New York Times, Sept. 11, 1915; Broun and Leech, supra, at 249.Google Scholar
“a heinous criminal who sought to turn every home into a brothel.” LaMay, supra, at 54–55; Bates, supra, at 200.Google Scholar
I have disregarded the threat.” Disorder in Court as Sanger Is Fined, New York Times, Sept. 11, 1915.Google Scholar
Family Limitation was indecent, immoral, and a menace to society. Bates, supra, at 200.Google Scholar
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struggled to clear the crowd into the corridor. Disorder in Court as Sanger Is Fined, New York Times, Sept. 11, 1915.Google Scholar
far short of the one-year imprisonment and $1,000 fine that could have been imposed. William Sanger to Fight in Court for Birth Control, New York Times, Sept. 5, 1915.Google Scholar
“as fast as one circulator was arrested[,] another would step forward and take his place.” Disorder in Court as Sanger Is Fined, New York Times, Sept. 11, 1915.Google Scholar
on September 21, 1915, the old crusader died. Broun and Leech, supra, at 258–259; Bates, supra, at 200.Google Scholar
“and from his successful efforts to convict William Sanger.” Anthony Comstock Dies in His Crusade, New York Times, Sept. 22, 1915, at 1.Google Scholar
“served for forty years as the national line between virtue and vice.” Werbel, Amy, Searching for Smut, Common-Place (Oct. 2010).Google Scholar
and made himself the first of its kept professors.” Mencken, A Book of Prefaces, supra, at 255, 260.Google Scholar
“the foremost policeman of private vices in America’s Gilded Age.” LaMay, Craig L., America’s Censor: Anthony Comstock and Free Speech, 1 Communications and the Law 41 (Sept. 1997).Google Scholar
“over most of the civilized world.” Hopkins, Mary Alden, Birth Control and Public Morals: An Interview with Anthony Comstock, Harper’s Weekly, May 22, 1915, at 489–490.Google Scholar
a fallen “soldier of righteousness,” Broun and Leech, supra, at 259.Google Scholar
“the most spectacular crusader against vice that America has known.” LaMay, supra, at 1–2.Google Scholar
his crusades against books, pictures and plays that he deemed indecent.” Anthony Comstock Dies in His Crusade, New York Times, Sept. 22, 1915, at 1.Google Scholar
“served a good cause with tireless devotion.” Boyer, Paul S., Purity in Print 29 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1968).Google Scholar
a conspiracy of silence against certain of the major concerns of mankind.” Van Doren, Carl, Why the Editorial Board Chose This Book, 3 Wings (New York: The Literary Guild of America, Inc., 1927).Google Scholar
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This analysis compels the conclusion that same-sex couples may exercise the right to marry. Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584, 2598 (2015).Google Scholar
so many joking comments by people in Europe as Comstockery in America.” Sanger, Comstockery in America, supra, at 46–49.Google Scholar
“the historical image of Anthony Comstock is more comic than threatening.” Heins, supra, at 29.Google Scholar
“the whipping boy of present day public opinion.” Collier, John, Anthony Comstock – Liberal, Survey, Nov. 6, 1915, at 127.Google Scholar
a mail clerk smarted under the reprimands of this irascible superior.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 145.Google Scholar
at considerable expense, to remove the garment. Comstock at Princeton, New York Times, Mar. 31, 1888; Bates, supra, at 185.Google Scholar
depicting a time in which Comstock’s influence caused even horses, dogs, and birds to wear trousers. Gibson, Charles Dana, A Scene in the Moral Future, Life, Jan. 12, 1888.Google Scholar
the advertiser was thrilled by the notoriety. A Shock to Sir Anthony, New York Times, Dec. 28, 1895.Google Scholar
“not at all libidinous.” Cairo Dances to Go, The World, Aug. 5, 1893, at 5; Broun and Leech, supra, at 227.Google Scholar
“at best, laughable,” and “at worst, revolting.” Mencken, H. L., The Emperor of Wowsers, New York Herald Tribune, Mar. 6, 1927.Google Scholar
single-handedly fought the battle for national purity … and won.” Kevin Peeples, Anthony Comstock: Fighter (2014).Google Scholar
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he dramatically curtailed the pornography industry, and nearly eliminated both abortion and contraception.” Scott Matthew Dix, When Contraception Was Outlawed! (editor’s preface to Outlawed! How Anthony Comstock Fought and Won the Purity of a Nation, supra, at xviii, xxi).Google Scholar
“makes for wickedly amusing reading today.” Comstock, Frauds Exposed, supra, at 443.Google Scholar
Comstock “both embodied and caricatured the moral sense of his epoch.” Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at xxxi).Google Scholar
halfway between that enjoyed by phrenology and that enjoyed by homosexuality.” Mencken, The Emperor of Wowsers, supra.Google Scholar
America is a provincial place, a second rate country town civilization after all.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 229–230.Google Scholar
for personally covering up advertisements for the Metropolitan Museum of Art that offended him. Comstockery, New York Times, Dec. 12, 1895; LaMay, supra, at 29–30; Broun and Leech, supra, at 231.Google Scholar
exercised their talents on the noted Secretary of the Society for the Suppression of Vice.” Anthony Comstock Dies in His Crusade, supra, at 1, 6.Google Scholar
“[m]ost people don’t even like the word – especially the censors.” Gardner, Gerald, The Censorship Papers xi (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1987).Google Scholar
far more harm to women than pornographic pictures.” Bates, supra, at vii.Google Scholar
everyone wants to know how you got into the business.” Vizzard, Jack, See No Evil 9 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1970).Google Scholar
“strange or hypocritical to mention freedom of expression in the same breath with censorship.” Schneider, Alfred, The Gatekeeper 5 (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2001).Google Scholar
if we have the eyes to read them.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 192.Google Scholar
the ridicule that was heaped on Comstock began at the very outset of his vigilante career. Anthony Comstock Dies in His Crusade, supra, at 6.Google Scholar
“if the policy of suppression is pushed to extremes.” The Suppression of Vice, The North American review 484–501 (Nov. 1882).Google Scholar
whose methods were displeasing to saints.” Bremner, supra, at xvi.Google Scholar
did not always sit well with other reformers. Blanchard and Semonche, supra, at 317–366.Google Scholar
he thinks no one has the right to work for social purity without first obtaining permission from him.” Bremner, supra, at xxvi–xxvii.Google Scholar
depicted a Victorian gentleman stoking a bonfire with books. Boyer, supra, at 250.Google Scholar
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and whose self-hatred stemmed from an obsession with masturbation Ernst and Schwartz, supra, at 29–30.Google Scholar
the “hard, incontrovertible experience of a Puritan farm-boy, in executive session behind the barn. Mencken, The Emperor of Wowsers, supra.Google Scholar
the impulses of cruelty arise concurrently with the stirrings of sex emotion.” Bates, supra, at 191.Google Scholar
the laws he had made his especial concern.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 191.Google Scholar
instead each prayer or Hymn seemed to add to my misery.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 39.Google Scholar
the zealot treated anything remotely connected with sex as a public danger. Broun and Leech, supra, at 201.Google Scholar
compared them to “wild animals” that must be “caged.” Bates, supra, at 179.Google Scholar
and it became a lifelong habit. Haney, Robert W., Comstockery in America 19 (Boston: Beacon Press, 1960).Google Scholar
some man of desperate fortunes and ambiguous character.” Bennett, D. M., Champions of the Church: Their Crimes and Persecutions 1014 (New York: Liberal and Scientific Publishing House, 1878).Google Scholar
destructive to individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution of our country.” Bennett, Champions of the Church, supra, at 1014.Google Scholar
many thousands of people had seen the photos that otherwise would have been unknown to them. What Is the Streisand Effect?, The Economist, Apr. 16, 2013; Streisand v. Adelman, SC-077-257 (Cal. Super. Ct., Dec. 31, 2003).Google Scholar
her name is now forever associated with comically misguided censorship efforts. Rogers, Paul, Streisand’s Home Becomes Hit on Web, San Jose Mercury News, Jun. 24, 2003.Google Scholar
and described the encounter as “sad and ludicrous.” Comstock, Vampire Literature, supra, at 160–161; LaMay, supra, at 29.Google Scholar
put art on page one.” Werbel, Amy, The Crime of the Nude, Winterthur Portfolio (2014), at 267.Google Scholar
“the advertising agents of sex.” Morris Ernst, Sex Wins in America, The Nation, Aug. 10, 1932, at 123.Google Scholar
to see which one can excel the others in unclean stories.” Comstock, Vampire Literature, supra, at 160–161.Google Scholar
invited Comstock to attend rehearsals at the Garrick Theatre. Comstock at It Again, New York Times, Oct. 25, 1905.Google Scholar
Comstock went to court to block the “obscene” performances, but was unsuccessful. Broun and Leech, supra, at 232–234.Google Scholar
with overflow audiences and tickets fetching premium prices. Blanchard and Semonche, supra, at 349.Google Scholar
city police had to call out the reserves to manage the crowds. Broun and Leech, supra, at 232.Google Scholar
a confrontation captured in a tongue-in-cheek front-page New York Times account. Broun and Leech, supra, at 238.Google Scholar
that story mutated and eventually took on a life of its own. Comstock Dooms September Morning, New York Times, May 11, 1913, at 1.Google Scholar
was said to spiral from $35 to $10,000. Bates, supra, at 181.Google Scholar
a lithograph that had been rejected as a brewer’s calendar became an overnight sensation. Reichenbach, Harry, Phantom Fame: The Anatomy of Ballyhoo (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1931).Google Scholar
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to prosecute a small art store for selling copies of the print. September Morn Pits Her Beauty Against Censors, Chicago Daily Tribune, Mar. 21, 1913, at 1; September Morn Wins Case, Chicago Daily Tribune, Mar. 22, 1913, at 3.Google Scholar
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“might work havoc in the minds of her pupils passing that way.” September Morn Stirs Mr. Comstock, The La Crosse Tribune, May 13, 1913.Google Scholar
people went into the print publishing business merely for the sake of handling this picture.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 239.Google Scholar
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“it must always be remembered that his locale was Celtic and his season spring.” United States v. One Book Called “Ulysses”, 5 F. Supp. 182, 183–184 (SDNY 1933).Google Scholar
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“does not affect the tendency of a book or picture” to corrupt. Comstock, Morals Versus Art, supra, at 4, 26.Google Scholar
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and his book as “an amazing tour de force.” One Book Called “Ulysses,” 5 F. Supp. at 184.Google Scholar
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can reduce the vagueness to a tolerable level.” Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slayton, 413 US 49, 84 (1973) (Brennan, J., dissenting).Google Scholar
to grapple with hard questions about obscenity’s relevance to a global medium. Corn-Revere, Robert, Cyberspace Cases Force Court to Reexamine Basic Assumptions of Obscenity and Child Pornography Jurisprudence, Cato Supreme Court Rev. 115–148 (2002).Google Scholar
prosecutions can be used to limit the availability of adult entertainment and to force local businesses to shut down. Kinsley, supra, at 639–642.Google Scholar
a law that threatened “to torch a large segment of the Internet community.” Reno v. ACLU, 521 US 844, 875, 882 (1997).Google Scholar
at least to the younger generation – a “joke” and a “scapegoat.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 244.Google Scholar
“You are nothing but a little boy trying to tell me my business!” Broun and Leech, supra, at 251–252.Google Scholar
had struck Comstock in response to being called a liar. Broun and Leech, supra, at 252–253.Google Scholar
Sumner would later write that he had been hired to replace the crotchety crusader. LaMay, supra, at 42–43.Google Scholar
They also wanted someone who avoided publicity. Broun and Leech, supra, at 256, 258.Google Scholar
impressed everyone with his even temper. Gertzman, supra; Boyer, supra, at 30.Google Scholar
naturally, he and Comstock fought often. LaMay, supra, at 43.Google Scholar
remained in that post for thirty-five years. Gertzman, supra.Google Scholar
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his wife’s pro-birth control pamphlet, Family Limitation. Bates, supra, at 199.Google Scholar
the old man’s fraying reputation and buoying his sagging spirits. Broun and Leech, supra, at 258; Bates, supra, at 199; Boyer, supra, at 28.Google Scholar
within ten days died of pneumonia. Anthony Comstock Dies in His Crusade, supra, at 1, 6.Google Scholar
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documenting Comstock’s deep-rooted neuroses. Broun and Leech, supra, at 46–58, 63–74, 77–78, 131–144, 178, 261; Ernst and Schwartz, supra, at 29–30.Google Scholar
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to cleanse newsstands and drugstore magazine racks of ‘objectionable’ material.” Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at vii.Google Scholar
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firmly believed “in himself and in his work to the end.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 244, 259.Google Scholar
a “barrier between youth and moral death.” Comstock, Frauds Exposed, supra, at 425.Google Scholar
“contrary not only to the law of the State, but to the law of God.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 249.Google Scholar
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according to Comstock, “defending ‘this, their dear obscenity.’” Comstock, Frauds Exposed, supra, at 508; Broun and Leech, supra, at 191.Google Scholar
their actions were based on “revenge, avarice, and innate depravity.” Comstock, Frauds Exposed, supra, at 393.Google Scholar
“naturally favor the impure and base.” Comstock, Frauds Exposed, supra, at 196–197.Google Scholar
the “enemies of moral purity.” Comstock, Frauds Exposed, supra, at 418.Google Scholar
a means of persecution, terrorism and blackmail.” Mencken, A Book of Prefaces, supra, at 251.Google Scholar
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asserted that some of the names on the petition were forgeries. Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 192–193, 226.Google Scholar
describing his advocacy as “sneering, scoffing, and blasphemous lectures.” Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 187.Google Scholar
“a scoundrel whom I caught committing a felony.” Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 194.Google Scholar
created merely “to defend those so charged.” Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 185.Google Scholar
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“little better than histories of brothels and prostitutes, in those lust-cursed nations.” Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 179.Google Scholar
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a “foreign writer of filth.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 18, 235–236; Boyer, supra, at 24–25.Google Scholar
all the invective that his violent nature and colorful imagination suggested.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 150.Google Scholar
a post he shared with “rattlesnakes and other poisonous dangers.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 19.Google Scholar
protect the young of our land from the leprosy of this vile trash.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 123.Google Scholar
more dangerous beasts of prey than rabid dogs. Broun and Leech, supra, at 42–43, 86.Google Scholar
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while he was just a “weeder in the garden of the Lord.” Comstock, Frauds Exposed, supra, at 396, 414; Bates, supra, at 3.Google Scholar
away from the ‘Lamb of God which taketh away sins of the world.’” Hopkins, Mary Alden, Birth Control and Public Morals: An Interview with Anthony Comstock, Harper’s Weekly, May 22, 1915, at 490; Broun and Leech, supra, at 416–417.Google Scholar
“open to every insidious teacher, and subject to every bad influence.” Comstock, Vampire Literature, supra, at 162; Comstock, Frauds Exposed, supra, at 416–417.Google Scholar
the filth will all pour in and the degradation of youth will follow.” Hopkins, supra, at 489–490.Google Scholar
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break down the health of women and disseminate a greater curse than the plagues and diseases of Europe.” Hopkins, supra, at 489–490.Google Scholar
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courts would be unable to keep up with the literature-induced crime wave. Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 26–37; Comstock, Vampire Literature, supra, at 164–166.Google Scholar
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a thing “from which to weave headlines.” Broun and Leech, supra, at 244.Google Scholar
“if one may borrow a stage term, ‘created’ his unique position.” Hopkins, supra, at 489–490.Google Scholar
have been in reality the accomplishments of Mr. Comstock.” Hopkins, supra, at 489.Google Scholar
are invaded by the evil of licentious literature.” Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 41, 133, 136.Google Scholar
“a devil-trap to captivate the child by perverting taste and fancy.” Comstock Traps for the Young, supra, at 6, 12, 28.Google Scholar
associated with thieves, murderers, libertines, and harlots.” Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 13, 15–16.Google Scholar
make foul-mouthed bullies, cheats, vagabonds, thieves, desperados, and libertines.” Comstock, Traps for the Young, supra, at 21, 25.Google Scholar
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in the dark about how the standards apply to particular cases. Letter from FCC Mass Media Bureau Chief James McKinney, to Counsel for Pacifica Radio (Jun. 5, 1987); William J. Byrnes, Esq., 63 Rad. Reg. 2d 216 (Mass Media Bur. 1987); Memorandum Opinion and Order, Pacifica Found., FCC No. 87-215 (FCC, released, Jun. 16, 1987). See Crigler and Byrnes, supra, at 339–340.Google Scholar
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and reclaims TV as a creative medium.” Kitman, Marvin, The Best Unwatched Show Ever, Newsday, Jan. 21, 1988, at 15; Kitman, Marvin, Riding Potter’s Express, Newsday, Feb. 17, 1989.Google Scholar
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solely on the few moments of video that accompanied the complaint. Corn-Revere, New Age Comstockery, supra, at 181–182; Heins, supra, at 119.Google Scholar
that might consider presenting groundbreaking programming. Corn-Revere, New Age Comstockery, supra, at 181–182; Heins, supra, at 119.Google Scholar
but it provided little help. Industry Guidance on the Commission’s Case Law Interpreting 18 U.S. C. § 1464 and Enforcement Policies Regarding Broadcast Indecency, 16 FCC Rcd. 7999, 8008–8009 (2001).Google Scholar
material is not per se indecent if the material has merit.” The KBOO Found., 16 FCC Rcd. 10731, 10733 (Enf. Bur. 2001).Google Scholar
a willingness to pursue the matter in court, the Commission reconsidered its position. Jones v. FCC, 2002 WL 2018521 (S.D.N.Y. 2002).Google Scholar
the sexual descriptions in the song are not sufficiently graphic to warrant sanction.” KBOO Found., 18 FCC Rcd. 2472, 2474 (Enf. Bur. 2003).Google Scholar
even the edited version “contains unmistakable offensive sexual references.” Citadel Broad. Company, 16 FCC Rcd. 11,839 (Enf. Bur. 2001).Google Scholar
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mounted a campaign directed at the FCC. Learmonth, Michael, Parents Television Council Sees New Era, Variety, Mar. 17, 2007 (https://variety.com/2007/tv/news/parents-television-council-sees-new-era-1117961334/).Google Scholar
flooding the agency with 18,000 complaints. Parents Television Council, Indecency Timeline (http://w2parentstv.org/Main/Research/IndecencyTimeline.aspx).Google Scholar
the “first-ever web-driven complaint form.” 2006 PTC Annual Report, supra, at 17; 2004 PTC Annual Report, supra, at 12 (www.parentstv.org/ptc/joinus/AR2004.pdf).Google Scholar
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programming it deemed to be “indecent” and/or “profane.” 2006 PTC Annual Report, supra, at 17.Google Scholar
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the numbers jumped to 13,922 in 2002, 202,032 in 2003, and 1,068,802 in 2004. See www.fcc.gov/eb/broadcast/ichart.pdf.Google Scholar
counted five, six, or even seven times. Thierer, Adam, Examining the FCC’s Complaint-Driven Broadcast Indecency Enforcement Process (Nov. 2005), at 7–8 (www.pff.org/issues-pubs/pops/pop12.22indecencyenforcement.pdf).Google Scholar
deep in the footnotes in one of the Commission’s periodic reports. News Release, Quarterly Report on Informal Consumer Inquiries and Complaints Released (Jun. 10, 2004). See Hunt, Kurt, The FCC Complaint Process and “Increasing Public Unease”: Toward an Apolitical Broadcast Indecency Regime, 14 Mich. Telecomm. Tech. Law Rev. 223, 232–233 (2007).Google Scholar
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“orchestrated fewer complaint campaigns this year than in previous years.” Thierer, Why Regulate Broadcasting?, supra, at 459–460.Google Scholar
the average monthly total in 2007 was just over 500 complaints. FCC, Quarterly Reports on Informal Consumer Inquiries and Complaints – 1st and 3rd Quarters 2007 (Jul. 1, 2008).Google Scholar
99.4 percent of the complaints the Commission had received for the year to that point. Thierer, Adam, More Inflated FCC Indecency Complaints, Sept. 9, 2009 (http://techliberation.com/2009/09/09/more-inflated-fcc-indecency-complaints).Google Scholar
including such shows as C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation, Friends, and Will & Grace. Scott Collins, Television & Radio; Crime Pays for Week’s Leader, CBS, LA Times, Oct. 13, 2004, at 12.Google Scholar
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“direct response to the increase of public complaints.” Remarks of Michael K. Powell, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission, at the National Association of Broadcasters Convention, Apr. 20, 2004, Las Vegas, Nevada, at 1, 3, 13–14; Hunt, supra, at 229–230.Google Scholar
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and taken a series of “steps to sharpen our enforcement blade.” Testimony of Michael K. Powell, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission, Before the United States Senate, Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, at 3–4 (Feb. 11, 2004) (www.commerce.senate.gov/pdf/powell021104.pdf).Google Scholar
almost four times the total of all proposed fines in the previous ten years combined. See www.fcc.gov/eb/broadcast/ichart.pdf (as of Jan. 3, 2005); Thierer, Why Regulate Broadcasting?, supra, at 463. In 2004 the FCC issued the following Notices of Apparent Liability: Entercom Kansas City Licensee, LLC, FCC 04-231 (Dec. 22, 2004) ($220,000 NAL); WQAM License Ltd. P’ship, 19 FCC Rcd. 22997 (2004) ($55,000 NAL); Complaints Against Various Licensees Regarding Their Broadcast of the Fox Network Program “Married by America” on April 7, 2003, 19 FCC Rcd. 20191 (2004) ($1,183,000 NAL); Complaints Against Various Television Licensees Concerning Their February 1, 2004, Broadcast of the Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Show, 19 FCC Rcd. 19230 (2004); Entercom Sacramento, 19 FCC Rcd. 20129 ($55,000 NAL); AMFM Radio Licenses, L. L. C., 19 FCC Rcd. 10751 ($27,500 NAL), concurrently rescinded, 19 FCC Rcd. 10775 (2004); Clear Channel Broad. Licenses, Inc., 19 FCC Rcd. 6773 (2004) ($495,000 NAL); Infinity Broad. Operations, Inc., 19 FCC Rcd. 5032 ($27,5000 NAL); AMFM Radio Licenses, Inc., 19 FCC Rcd. 5005 (2004) ($247,500 NAL); Capstar TX Ltd. P’ship, 19 FCC Rcd. 4960 (2004) ($55,000 NAL); Clear Channel Broad. Licenses, Inc., 19 FCC Rcd. 1768 ($755,000 NAL); Young Broad. of San Francisco, 19 FCC Rcd. 1751 ($27,500 NAL); AMFM Radio Licenses, LLC, 19 FCC Rcd. 5005 (2004) ($247,500 NAL). In addition to these enforcement actions, the FCC entered settlements that resulted in payments totaling $5.5 million to the United States Treasury. See Viacom, Inc., 19 FCC Rcd. 23100 (2004) ($3.5 million); Emmis Communications Corp., 19 FCC Rcd. 16003 (1999) ($300,000); Clear Channel Communications, Inc., 19 FCC Rcd. 10,880 (2004) ($1.75 million).Google Scholar
thus eliminating the policy immunizing “fleeting expletives” from penalties. Complaints Against Various Broadcast Licensees Regarding Their Airing of the “Golden Globe Awards” Program, 19 FCC Rcd. 4975 (2004).Google Scholar
boosted the level of fines tenfold. Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005, Pub. L. 109–235, 120 Stat. 491 (Jun. 15, 2006), codified at 47 USC 503(b)(2)(C)(ii).i.Google Scholar
of $550,000 for twenty-three CBS-owned stations. Complaints Against Various Television Licensees Concerning Their February 1, 2004, Broadcast of the Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Show, 19 FCC Rcd. 19230 (2004).Google Scholar
to impose a fine in February 2006. Complaints Against Various Television Licensees Concerning Their February 1, 2004, Broadcast of the Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Show, 21 FCC Rcd. 6653 (2006).Google Scholar
for a Fox reality show called Married by America. Complaints Against Various Licensees Regarding Their Broadcast of the Fox Network Program “Married by America” on April 7, 2003, 19 FCC Rcd. 20191 (2004) ($1,183,000 NAL).Google Scholar
and dismissed various other complaints. Complaints Regarding Various Television Broadcasts Between February 2, 2002 and March 8, 2005, Notices of Apparent Liability and Memorandum Opinion & Order, 21 FCC Rcd. 2664 (2006) (“Omnibus Order”).Google Scholar
stations that broadcast an episode of the prime time program Without a Trace. Complaints Against Various Television Licensees Concerning Their December 31, 2004 Broadcast of the Program “Without A Trace,” 21 FCC Rcd. 2732, 2735 (2006).Google Scholar
could reasonably be said to require.” Without a Trace NAL, 21 FCC Rcd. at 2736.Google Scholar
without at least briefly describing those activities.” Omnibus Order, 21 FCC Rcd. at 2705–2706.Google Scholar
PTC had sent out an “E-Alert” to drum up complaints. PTC E-Alert, CBS Reruns Teen Orgy Scene (Jan. 12, 2005); PTC Press Release, PTC Chastises CBS/Viacom for Re-Airing Show Featuring Teen Orgy Party (Jan. 13, 2005).Google Scholar
“protest will be multiplied many, many times over!” PTC E-Alert, CBS Reruns Teen Orgy Scene (Jan. 12, 2005).Google Scholar
before Congress jacked up the indecency fines. In re Complaints Against Various Television Licensees Concerning Their February 25, 2003 Broadcast of the Program “NYPD Blue,” 23 FCC Rcd. 3147 (2008).Google Scholar
dropped all live news coverage that was not directly related to public safety. Fox Television Stations, Inc. v. FCC, 613, F. 3d 317, 335 (2nd Cir. 2010), aff’d on other grounds, 567 US 239 (2012).Google Scholar
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the FCC seriously considered even such obviously frivolous complaints. Timms, Dominic, Fearful U.S. TV Networks Censor More Shows, The Guardian, Jan. 18, 2005.Google Scholar
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We really don’t want to go there anymore.” Diane Toroian Keaggy, Radio’s “Shock” Therapy, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Apr. 11, 2004 (quoting John Kijowski, general manager of WVRV-FM and WSSM-FM); Hinckley, David, DJ Fired for Race Remark, New York Daily News, Mar. 23, 2004; Margolin, Josh, Jersey Radio Stations Clear the Air as Feds Crack Down, Newark Star-Ledger, Jun. 27, 2004; Pierce, Charles, Hot Button Issue, Boston Globe, Jul. 18, 2004, at 9; Davies, Jennifer, Fine-Wary Broadcasters Toe a Shifting Line; FCC Crackdown on Indecency Is Making Some Gun-Shy, San Diego Union-Tribune, May 29, 2004, at A1; Steinberg, Jacques, Eye on FCC, TV and Radio Watch Words, New York Times, May 10, 2004, at A1; Daneman, Matthew, WHUR Drops Its Live Radio Programs, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, May 27, 2004, at B1.Google Scholar
the deleted words are essential components of the subject’s poetry. Press Release, PBS Edits “Offensive” Content from Independently-Produced Documentary Every Child Is Born a Poet: The Life and Work of Piri Thomas in Order to Comply with New FCC Indecency Rules, Apr. 6, 2004.Google Scholar
even though an effort to declare it obscene had failed in 1957. Cohen, Patricia, “Howl” in an Era That Fears Indecency, New York Times, Oct. 4, 2007, at E3.Google Scholar
“fuck” or “fucking” ten times in thirty seconds. Letter to Peter Branton, 6 FCC Rcd. 610 (1991), petition for rev. dismissed, 993 F. 2d 906 (DC Cir. 1993).Google Scholar
because it occurred “during a morning news interview.” Omnibus Order, 21 FCC Rcd. at 2699.Google Scholar
would “defer to CBS’s plausible characterization of its own programming” as news. Complaints Regarding Various Television Broadcasts between February 2, 2002 and March 8, 2005, 21 FCC Rcd. 13299, 13327–13328 (2006) (“Omnibus Remand Order”).Google Scholar
there is no outright news exemption from our indecency rules.” Omnibus Remand Order, 21 FCC Rcd. at 13327 (emphasis added).Google Scholar
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was altered because a soldier’s shouts included expletives. Kumar, Dinesh, FCC Indecency Guidelines Clear for Some Public TV Stations, Communications Daily, Mar. 2, 2005, at 9–11.Google Scholar
and others by using a banner as a cover. de Moraes, Lisa, Some Local Stations Cautious in Gauguin Painting Coverage, Washington Post, Apr. 5, 2011, at C1.Google Scholar
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claiming (as it had years earlier for Ulysses) that to do so would constitute a prior restraint. Eggerton, John, Dissing Private Ryan, Broadcasting & Cable, Nov. 12, 2004.Google Scholar
“hard on,” and “hell.” Complaints Against Various Television Licensees Regarding Their Broadcast on November 11, 2004, of the ABC Television Network’s Presentation of the Film “Saving Private Ryan,” 20 FCC Rcd. 4507, 4510 (2005).Google Scholar
and concluded it was not. Saving Private Ryan, 20 FCC Rcd. at ¶ 14.Google Scholar
was preceded by TV ratings and viewer advisories. Saving Private Ryan, 20 FCC Rcd. at ¶¶ 2 & n. 3, 11, 14–16.Google Scholar
several weeks before it released the order. FCC to Deny Private Ryan Indecent – Source, Reuters, Jan. 24, 2005; Pelofsky, Jeremy, FCC Chief Urges Denying “Private Ryan” Complaints, Reuters, Dec. 13, 2004.Google Scholar
in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. Fox Television Stations, Inc. v. FCC, 489 F. 3d 444 (2nd Cir. 2007), rev’d, 556 US 502 (2009); CBS Corp. v. FCC, 535 F. 3d 167 (3rd Cir. 2008), cert. granted, vacated, and remanded, 556 US 1218 (2009).Google Scholar
but sent the matter back to the agency to give another try. Fox Television Stations, Inc., 489 F. 3d at 462.Google Scholar
“will be decided soon enough, perhaps in this very case.” Fox Television Stations, 556 US at 517, 527, 529.Google Scholar
the Commission appears to be entirely unaware of this fact.” Fox Television Stations, 556 US at 544 (Justice Stevens, dissenting).Google Scholar
the long shadow the First Amendment casts over what the Commission has done.” Fox Television Stations, 556 US at 545 (Justice Ginsburg, dissenting).Google Scholar
a “deep intrusion into the First Amendment rights of broadcasters.” Fox Television Stations, 556 US at 531–535 (Justice Thomas, concurring).Google Scholar
reserving judgment on whether the FCC’s action was constitutional. Fox Television Stations, 556 US at 538–539 (Justice Kennedy, concurring).Google Scholar
the board “fucked up my house.” Fox Television Stations, Inc. Oral Argument, C-Span (Jan. 13, 2010) (www.c-span.org/video/?291305-1/fox-television-v-fcc).Google Scholar
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which largely profiled an outsider genre of musical experience.” Fox Television Stations, Inc., 613 F. 3d at 333.Google Scholar
that the word ‘bullshitter’ was uttered during a news program.” Fox Television Stations, Inc., 613 F. 3d at 332.Google Scholar
but this surely was not it. Fox Television Stations, Inc., 613 F. 3d at 335.Google Scholar
that took place before the change in policy in Golden Globes. CBS Corp. v. FCC, 663 F.3d 122 (3rd Cir. 2011), cert. denied, 567 US 953 (2012).Google Scholar
voiding the FCC policy as being unconstitutionally vague. ABC, Inc. v. FCC, 404 Fed. Appx. 530 (2nd Cir. 2011).Google Scholar
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most did not even come from the viewing areas of the stations named. Jarvis, Jeff, The Shocking Truth about the FCC: Censorship by the Tyranny of the Few, Buzzmachine, Nov. 15, 2004 (https://buzzmachine.com/2004/11/15/).Google Scholar
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otherwise deficient, or “foreclosed by settled precedent.” Public Notice, FCC Reduces Backlog of Broadcast Indecency Complaints by 70% (More Than One Million Complaints); Seeks Comment on Adopting Egregious Cases Policy Pleading Cycle Established, 28 FCC Rcd 4082 (2013) (“2013 Public Notice”).Google Scholar
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one of those “egregious” cases. In the Matter of WDBJ Television, Inc., 30 FCC Rcd. 3024 (2015).Google Scholar
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  • References
  • Robert Corn-Revere
  • Book: The Mind of the Censor and the Eye of the Beholder
  • Online publication: 07 October 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316417065.013
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  • References
  • Robert Corn-Revere
  • Book: The Mind of the Censor and the Eye of the Beholder
  • Online publication: 07 October 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316417065.013
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  • References
  • Robert Corn-Revere
  • Book: The Mind of the Censor and the Eye of the Beholder
  • Online publication: 07 October 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316417065.013
Available formats
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