Comstock, Anthony

Anthony Comstock (1844–1915) was a moral crusader whose efforts to curtail not only literature that he considered to be obscene but also information on birth control and abortion often raised issues involving First and Fourth Amendment rights.

Born in a religious home in New Canaan, Connecticut, Comstock attended a local academy before enrolling in the Union Army. After moving to New York, Comstock became active in the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), whose president, Morris K. Jessup, appointed him to lead its secret Committee for the Suppression of Vice, which later became the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. Comstock had once executed a citizen's arrest against a bookseller who had sold a book to a friend who subsequently went to a brothel and contracted a venereal disease. Likewise, the Committee for the Suppression of Vice appears to have conducted numerous seizures, including of 13,000 pounds of books and many other publications.

Comstock succeeded in securing the passage of a federal antiobscenity law in 1873 (later reflected in many state laws) designed to restrict the mailing of obscene materials, after which he was appointed as the special agent of the U.S. Post Office to enforce it. Comstock drew few distinctions between obscenity and materials (including anatomy books) that were designed to educate individuals about sexual matters, and on occasion, he sought to censor works that were recognized as great art or literature. Although his approach was puritanical, it received support from leading entrepreneurs and tapped into progressive sentiments of the day, including medical opinion, which often regarded both contraception and abortion as dangerous to the health of women.

In modern times, the term comstockery is used as a pejorative description of self-righteous individuals who are more concerned about enforcing personal notions of morality than about respecting First and Fourth Amendment rights. Numerous court decisions have provided greater protection for First Amendment freedoms and greater protections against the search and seizure of materials alleged to be obscene. Relying in part on the Fourth Amendment, Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) recognized a right to privacy that encompassed birth control; this was extended in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973) to include most abortions in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy.