Opinion ID: 293074
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Westin, Privacy and Freedom 39 (1962)

Text: 27 As early as 1792, persons in the postal service were forbidden to open a letter, and Justice Story wrote in 1841 that involuntary disclosure of the contents of private mail strikes at the root of all that free and mutual interchange of advice, opinions, and sentiments, between relatives and friends, and correspondents, which is so essential to the well-being of society.    A. Westin, supra, 335-36. 28 In Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 at 402, 43 S.Ct. 625, 67 L.Ed. 1042 (1923), Mr. Justice McReynolds expressed this nation's repudiation of the principle that a State might so structure its institutions as to foster a homogenous people: In order to submerge the individual and develop ideal citizens, Sparta assembled the males at seven into barracks and intrusted their subsequent education and training to official guardians. Although such measures have been deliberately approved by men of great genius, their ideas touching the relation between individual and State were wholly different from those upon which our institutions rest; and it hardly will be affirmed that any Legislature could impose such restrictions upon the people of a state without doing violence to both letter and spirit of the Constitution. (quoted with approval in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 511-512, 89 S.Ct. 733, 739, 21 L.Ed.2d 731 (1969)). 29 J. Rosenberg, The Death of Privacy 153 (1969): We must    be given the chance to decide to whom we will entrust our thoughts, and to whom we will reveal our secrets   . 30 See A. Westin, supra, 39-42. 31 Proceedings, supra, 495. 32 See cases cited, Stanley v. Georgia, 394 U.S. 557, 561-562, nn. 6, 7, 89 S.Ct. 1243, 22 L.Ed.2d 542 (1969). Cf. American Law Institute, Model Penal Code § 251.4(2) (d), (3) (b) (Proposed Official Draft, 1962) (would penalize one who knowingly    possesses any obscene material for purposes of sale or other commercial dissemination; but would give an affirmative defense in cases of non-commercial dissemination to personal associates) 33 Smith v. California, 361 U.S. 147, 160, 161, 80 S.Ct. 215, 4 L.Ed.2d 205 (1959) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting) 34 United States v. Reidel (S.D.Cal., filed June 8, 1970), cert. granted, 39 U.S.L.W. (1970), 400 U.S. 817, 91 S.Ct. 67, 27 L.Ed.2d 44 (unconstitutional to prohibit mailing of obscene matter to one who uses mails for commercial distribution to willing buyers who state they are adults); United States v. Thirty-Seven Photographs, 309 F.Supp. 36 (C.D.Calif., filed January 27, 1970) (three-judge court), cert. granted, 400 U.S. 817, 91 S.Ct. 34, 27 L.Ed.2d 44 (1970) (unconstitutional to exclude from the United States obscene photographs imported for use by adults in the privacy of their own homes); Stein v. Batchelor, 300 F. Supp. 602 (N.D.Tex.) (three-judge court), prob. juris. noted 396 U.S. 954, 90 S.Ct. 428, 24 L.Ed.2d 419 (1969) (holding unconstitutional state statute proscribing knowing possession of obscene material) 35 Among previous judicial glosses upon the Comstock Act are the requirements: (1) that the material not only be obscene, lewd, [etc.], but that it also have the effect of appealing to the beholder's prurient interest and that it offend national standards of decency, Manual Enterprises, Inc. v. Day, 370 U.S. 478, 483-486, 82 S.Ct. 1432, 8 L.Ed.2d 639 (1962) (opinion of Harlan, J.); see also United States v. Klaw, 350 F.2d 155, 164 (2d Cir. 1965) (above limitations plus utter lack of redeeming social value); (2) that the offensive material not be a classic work, e. g., Roth v. Goldman, 172 F.2d 788 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 337 U.S. 938, 69 S.Ct. 1514, 93 L.Ed. 1743 (1949). (3) that the offensive material not be mailed to one who has a professional interest in it, e. g., Walker v. Popenoe, 80 U.S.App.D.C. 129, 149 F.2d 511 (1945). A significant further narrowing of the statute results from the decision of the Justice Department to limit prosecutions to those cases involving repeated offenders or other circumstances which may fairly be characterized as aggravated. See Redmond v. United States, 384 U.S. 264, 265, 86 S.Ct. 1415, 1416, 16 L.Ed.2d 521 (1966).