United States v. Nathan
| Citation | 61 F. 936 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES v. NATHAN. |
| Decision Date | 30 May 1894 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Iowa |
Cato Sells, Dist. Atty., for the United States.
Argo McDuffie & Argo, for defendant.
The indictment in this case is based upon the second section of the act of congress approved September 26, 1888 (25 Stat 496), and charges that the defendant did knowingly deposit in the post office of the United States, at the town of Granvelle, Sioux county, Iowa, for mailing and delivery, a certain envelope, containing an obscene, lewd, and indecent letter. The demurrer presents the question whether the mailing an obscene letter inclosed in an envelope is within the inhibition of the statute if nothing obscene, indecent or improper is written upon the outside of the envelope. The second section of the act of September 26, 1888, amends section 3893 of the Revised Statutes, and the first section amends the act of June 18, 1888; and, as the statutes now stand, the first section declares all matter, otherwise mailable, upon the envelope or outer cover or wrapper of which, or any postal card, upon which, are found any delineations, epithets, terms, or language of an indecent lewd, lascivious, obscene, libelous, scurrilous, defamatory, or threatening character, or calculated, by the terms, manner, or style thereof, to reflect injuriously upon the character or conduct of another, to be nonmailable. The general purpose of this section is plain. It is to prevent the postal facilities of the United States from being used as a means for the publication of obscene, lewd, libelous, defamatory, or threatening matter, tending to injure the character of any citizen. Sending through the public mails a package or letter upon the cover or wrapper of which or a postal card, on which, is written, printed, stamped, or delineated any libelous or defamatory matter, would be a publication of such matter, because it would be open to the inspection of all through whose hands it would pass, in the course of transmission, through the mails. This section is intended to protect the citizen from the possible injury which might be caused him by the publication, in the manner indicated, of libelous, lewd, defamatory, or threatening matter. This possible injury can only arise when such matter is brought within the knowledge of a third party, and hence the section is confined to matters upon the outside of which is found the prohibited delineations, epithets, writing, etc.
A libelous, defamatory, or threatening letter, if inclosed in a wrapper, envelope, or other cover, whereby its contents are kept from the knowledge of third parties, would not fall within the inhibition of the first section of the statute because the evil this section is mainly aimed at would not arise unless the libelous or defamatory matter is in some way brought to the knowledge of a third party. If, therefore, the indictment in this case was based upon the first section of the act of 1888, it would be faulty,...
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