Comstock Act

Anthony Comstock

Anthony Comstock (1844–1915) was a devout member of the Congregationalist Church who spearheaded efforts to outlaw pornography and other offensive material of the time. Following his service in the Union Army, Comstock moved to a New York City boarding house and was appalled by the pervasive drinking, gambling, solicitation of prostitutes, and other “morally-reprehensible” behaviors he experienced there. Shortly thereafter, Comstock undertook a career crusading against the propagation and distribution of “obscene literature.” In one of his most common schemes, Comstock would purchase sexually explicit materials from a vendor and then insist that the local police arrest that vendor for violating state obscenity laws; today, this method would be considered entrapment. Later, with the support of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, Comstock lobbied Congress for stricter federal obscenity laws. As a result, the Comstock Act was signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 3, 1873. The act strengthened the obscenity laws of the time to include prohibition of shipment of information “for preventing conception or producing an abortion” through the postal system. The penalty for offense was stiff, in terms of both fines levied and jail time.

History of the Comstock Act

During the social upheaval of the post–Civil War years in America, the Comstock Act was seen as an effort to legislate the moral order of citizens. In 1878, a petition was signed by approximately 70,000 Americans and submitted to Congress requesting that the act be repealed; however, Congress did not do so. More than 50 years later, court opinions in the 1930s began to challenge the act's restrictions on the shipping of contraceptive devices and related information. Despite these challenges, Congress did not amend the Comstock Act regarding contraceptive devices and information until 1971, when it deleted references to the mailing of advertisements for contraceptives. In 1973, the famous case of Roe v. Wade established the constitutional right of women to have an abortion; today, the Comstock Act's restrictions on the mailing of abortion-related materials remain on the books, despite being inconsistent with the decision of Roe v. Wade. Various cases over the years have challenged the constitutionality of the act, to varying success. That the act has persisted appears to be because of widely held beliefs about pornography and other potentially obscene materials, though those beliefs have not been conclusively shown to be true—namely, that consumption of obscenity results in propagation of violence and maladaptive sexual behavior among consumers.

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