The Comstock Act was raised in the Supreme Court in March of 2024. When I was a kid, parents would always warn you that forms of sexual expression might “violate the Comstock Act.” What is the Comstock Act and why was it in court discussions in 2024?
Federal Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk overrode the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone in part because of the Comstock Act. Anthony Comstock was the postal inspector under Grant and he made it his mission to keep the Post Office from facilitating the mailing of pretty much everything to do with human sexuality. According to the New York Times:
The law is named for Anthony Comstock, an anti-vice crusader who became the U.S. postal inspector during the Grant administration. Enacted by Congress in 1873, it barred the mailing of contraceptives and “lewd” materials, along with drugs that could be used to terminate a pregnancy. (Congress later repealed the birth control provision but let the rest stand.)
Specifically, a component of the act declares “nonmailable” every “article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use it or apply it for producing abortion.”
In his ruling, Judge Kacsmaryk wrote, “It is indisputable that chemical abortion drugs are both ‘drug[s]’ and are ‘for producing abortion.’ Therefore, federal criminal law declares they are ‘nonmailable.’”
Note on feature cartoon: The cartoon appeared in Puck Magazine depicting Comstock cowering before mannequins in underwear.
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the Moral Police win again – even in the 19 century……