Tag Archives: comstock-act

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas are just asking questions about the Comstock Act, a 150-year-old obscenity law that anti-abortion activists believe could be revived as a national abortion ban. The Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday in Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, a case that …

In 1873, the United States passed a sweeping anti-obscenity law named for the vice-squad crusader put in charge of its enforcement. Anthony Comstock is said to have bragged that in his role as U.S. postal inspector he seized 150 tons of books, made 4,000 arrests — including of feminists Emma …