by Jim J Jones

Created on: June 16, 2010

Government efforts at censorship have a long and unpleasant history in the United States. Time and time again, under the guise of "protecting the citizens" from such unpleasant things as "indecent or immoral" images (the horror! as if American grown ups had not seen equally indecent things in their own bed rooms on a nightly basis), the federal and state governments have tried to block their opponents' political messages, and tried to quash the religious views of groups they dislike. Consistently, these laws against immoral images were used, immorally and illegally, to rob Americans of the 1st Amendment rights.

Easily the most infamous was the law banning the mailing of "immoral" images (particularly pornography, at least that's what the bill's supporters claimed). The Comstock Act, which governed these "nonmailable" materials, was little more than a tool used by a small group of moralizing voters to ban everything from political mailings to books deemed inappropriate. One writer directly affected by the law wrote this in her book

"There was one group of eager readers that has always interested me particularly-namely the Post Office clerks. As the demand for the pamphlet grew, I found that more and more envelopes reached the people to whom they were addressed empty, or else they never arrived at all. (The pamphlets were sent in the unsealed clasp envelopes which are ordinarily used for literature of this sort.) I did not keep account of the number which thus had to be replaced, but it was surprisingly large. I was patient at first about the losses, for if the Post Office clerks were so hungry for knowledge that they were willing to pilfer it, they must have needed it rather badly. However, as their hunger seemed insatiable and their numbers seemed endless, I presently resorted to mailing the pamphlet in sealed envelopes.

Out of the clear sky, with no premonitory hint, on September 2, 1922, after the pamphlet had been in published circulation for four and a half years, it was declared unmailable as obscenity."

The purpose of this shield against "indecency" and "immorality" was simply an indecent and immoral attempt to censor Americans, and rob them of their right to free speech. Although the Comstock Act was eventually repealed (though not without much legal wrangling), parts of it remain in force even to this day. The postal service is still known to reject letters it deems in decent, and has even been known to return to the sender postcards with images of famous Renaissance-era nude paintings (the sort that feature prominently in the world's greatest museums).

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