United States v. Huggett
U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern Ohio
On Demurrer to Indictment. Defendants were each indicted for sending through the mails letters which were sealed, but contained language confessedly indecent and obscene. There were demurrers upon the ground that the sending of such letters was not prohibited at the time of the mailing of these particular letters, which was before the passage by congress of the acts of June 18 and September 26, 1888, on that subject. The cases were heard together.
1Opinion of the CourtHammond, J.
These demurrers present the disputed question whether or not a message or communication in writing from one person to another, of the ordinary and conventional form and style known in common speech as “a letter,” deposited in the mails, is within the inhibition of the Revised Statutes, § 3893, if it use language that is obscene within the meaning of that statute. The adjudicated cases being divided, the expressions of opinion are very conflicting, and a case is thought to be now pending in the supreme court requiring its decision of the question. The cases cited in the affirmative of the…
2Cases cited13 opinions
- Ex Parte JacksonSupreme Court of the United States · 1878
- United States v. REESESupreme Court of the United States · 1876
- United States v. HartwellSupreme Court of the United States · 1868
- United States v. FreemanSupreme Court of the United States · 1845
- United States v. HethSupreme Court of the United States · 1806
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3Cited by3 opinions
- In Re DampierIdaho Supreme Court · 1928
- United States v. WilsonDistrict Court, N.D. California · 1893
- United States v. BookerDistrict Court, D. North Dakota · 1899