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What Roman Mars Can Learn About Con Law

Comstock Zombies

What Roman Mars Can Learn About Con Law

Roman Mars

Government

4.84.1K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

19th century "zombie" laws are shambling into the abortion debate

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

So we're talking on Friday, May 12th at about 11 a.m. and what is our subject today?

0:05.0

So Roman, are you familiar with the word comstockery?

0:09.0

No.

0:11.0

Well, it refers to over-the-top, excessive and kind of puritanical forms of censorship.

0:18.6

Okay.

0:19.6

And it actually refers to Anthony Comstock, and he was one of the most famous anti-Vice Crusaders of the late 19th century.

0:28.0

Comstock looked around at the New York of the 19th century and he just thought it was filthy filthy filthy

0:36.1

he saw prostitution pornography gambling ads for sex toys, and birth control, people were just insufficiently pious.

0:48.3

So in 1873, Comstock founded the New York Society for the suppression of vice and that was to

0:55.3

enforce public morality but the reason why Anthony Comstock is famous today is

1:01.8

because of 18 USC 1461.

1:05.0

And that's the Comstock Act.

1:07.0

I've heard now, as you started talking,

1:10.0

I remember the idea of the Comstock Act, maybe from the Intouchables.

1:14.3

I don't know.

1:15.3

Oh yeah, that might have been it.

1:16.3

That's right.

1:17.3

I mean, that's a kind of anti-Vice Law.

1:18.8

Yeah.

1:19.8

And it's called the Comstock Act because it was actually Anthony Comstock who went to Washington and

1:24.3

successfully persuaded Congress to pass this anti-Vice law in 1873 and in fact he

1:31.5

was so successful he persuaded also a number of states to pass their own state

...

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