Over the years, countless civil libertarians have attacked the Comstock Act of 1873 on First Amendment grounds.
The series of federal laws, inspired by far-right anti-vice activist Anthony Comstock, criminalized sending "obscene" material via the U.S. Postal Service — and his idea of "obscenity" went way beyond sexually explicit adult entertainment. In Anthony Comstock's view, even literature on contraception constituted obscenity.
In her June 21 column, the New York Times' Michelle Goldberg warns that when Donald Trump's "emboldened Christian nationalist allies" threaten to "resurrect" the Comstock Act of 1873, they need to be taken seriously.
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"Until the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022," Goldberg explains, "it was hard for feminists to get Americans to take the threat of losing the constitutional right to abortion seriously…. It is similarly difficult to get Americans to appreciate the threat that the 19th-Century Comstock Act could be resurrected."
The liberal columnist notes that although the Comstock Act of 1873 was "never repealed," it was considered "dead letter" until recently.
"But with Roe overturned," Goldberg warns, "some in Donald Trump's orbit see a chance to reanimate Comstock, using it to ban medication abortion — and maybe surgical abortion as well — without passing new federal legislation. The 920-page blueprint for a second Trump Administration created by Project 2025, a coalition of conservative organizations, calls for enforcing Comstock's criminal prohibitions against using the mail — widely understood to include common carriers like UPS and FedEx — to provide or distribute abortion pills."
Goldberg adds, "Some MAGA legal minds believe that Comstock could also be wielded to prevent the mail from transporting tools used in surgical abortions."
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Goldberg argues that Democrats need to "make 'Comstock' a household word" and do everything they can to show voters how dangerous a revitalized Comstock Act could be. Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minnesota) is pushing a bill dubbed the Stop Comstock Act of 2024.
"A messaging bill like Smith's Stop Comstock Act cannot on its own awaken the electorate to what's in store for us if a second Trump victory sweeps his emboldened Christian nationalist allies into power," the New York Times columnist writes. "But it can be part of a campaign to communicate the (presidential) election's stakes….. It's not just that laws from the 1800s shouldn't be brought back to life, but that if (President Joe) Biden isn't reelected, they could be."
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Michelle Goldberg's full New York Times column is available at this link (subscription required).
