In re Banks
| Decision Date | 07 December 1895 |
| Docket Number | 10423 |
| Parties | In the matter of the Petition of JONATHAN BANKS for a Writ of Habeas Corpus |
| Court | Kansas Supreme Court |
THE opinion states the material facts.
Petitioner remanded.
Harry L. Strohm, for petitioner.
C. P Rutherford, county attorney, for respondent.
OPINION
The petitioner, Jonathan Banks, was arrested on a warrant issued by E. L. Carney, Esq., a justice of the peace of Leavenworth county, on a charge of having sold the Kansas City Sunday Sun, alleged to be a newspaper "devoted largely to the publication of scandals, lechery, assignations, intrigues between men and women, and immoral conduct of persons," in violation of chapter 161 of the Laws of 1891. A preliminary examination was had, and he was required to give bond in the sum of $ 500 for his appearance at the next term of the district court, and, in default thereof, he was confined in the jail of Leavenworth county. From this restraint he asks to be discharged.
It is contended that said chapter 161 is void, because in contravention of section 11 of the bill of rights, which reads:
"The liberty of the press shall be inviolate: and all persons may freely speak, write or publish their sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of such right; and in all civil or criminal actions for libel, the truth may be given in evidence to the jury, and if it shall appear that the alleged libelous matter was published for justifiable ends, the accused party shall be acquitted."
The act under consideration was not passed to prevent the publication of libels, nor to suppress papers indulging in such publications, but to prevent the publication and sale of newspapers especially devoted to the publication of scandals and accounts of lecherous and immoral conduct. Without doubt a newspaper, the most prominent feature of which is items detailing the immoral conduct of individuals, spreading out to public view an unsavory mass of corruption and moral degradation, is calculated to taint the social atmosphere and, by describing in detail the means resorted to by immoral persons to gratify their propensities, tends especially to corrupt the morals of the young, and lead them into vicious paths and immoral acts. We entertain no doubt that the legislature has power to suppress this class of publications,...
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...v. Alberts, 1957, 138 Cal.App.2d Supp. 909, 292 P.2d 90; State v. McKee, 1900, 73 Conn. 18, 46 A. 409, 49 L.R.A. 542; In re Banks, 1895, 56 Kan. 242, 42 P. 693; Commonwealth v. Isenstadt, 1945, 318 Mass. 543, 62 N.E.2d 840; State v. Kohler, 1956, 40 N.J.Super. 600, 123 A.2d 881; Commonwealt......
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...30, 48 N.Y.S.2d 230; State v. McKee, 73 Conn. 18, 46 A. 409, 49 L.R.A. 542; State v. Van Wye, 136 Mo. 227, 37 S.W. 938; In re Banks, 56 Kan. 242, 42 P. 693. 'Statutes and ordinances regulating the operation on city streets of sound trucks have been uniformly upheld. Our own case of State ex......
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... ... circulation of newspapers which, like The Kansas City ... Sunday Sun, of infamous memory, are devoted largely to ... the publication of scandals, lechery, assignations, intrigues ... of men and women, and other immoral conduct. ( In re ... Banks, Petitioner, 56 Kan. 242, 42 P. 693; State v ... Van Wye, 136 Mo. 227, 37 S.W. 938, 58 Am. St. Rep. 627; ... Strohm v. The People, 160 Ill. 582, 43 N.E. 622.) ... Likewise newspapers may be suppressed which are made up ... principally of criminal news, police reports, and pictures ... ...
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