Mary Ziegler: The 19th century sexual purity law that some want to revive

[Eugene]

Source: CNN

Opinion: The 19th century sexual purity law that some want to revive

Opinion by Mary Ziegler
Published 2:30 PM EDT, Tue October 3, 2023

Editor’s Note: Mary Ziegler (@maryrziegler) is the Martin Luther King Professor of Law at UC Davis. She is the author of “Dollars for Life: The Antiabortion Movement and the Fall of the Republican Establishment” and “Roe: The History of a National Obsession.” The views expressed in this commentary are her own. Read more opinion on CNN.

(CNN) — Matthew Kacsmaryk, an ultra-conservative US District Court judge in the Northern District of Texas, has captured national attention with a string of sweeping rulings on everything from contraception to the freedom of speech. The most recent ruling, now just a few weeks old, breaks from other federal decisions and upholds a ban on drag performances.

There has been a surprising and consistent theme in several of Kacsymaryk’s rulings: the Comstock Act, a 19th-century sexual purity law that has lain dormant for more than a century. Last spring, when Kacsmaryk ruled that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) never had the authority to approve mifepristone, a pill used in the standard protocol for medication abortion, which now accounts for more than half of abortions performed in the United States, he argued that the Comstock Act made it a federal crime to mail abortion pills.

More recently, in upholding a Texas university’s decisions to prohibit drag performances on campus, Kacsmaryk framed the Comstock Act as a central example of the nation’s history and tradition when it came to freedom of speech.

Other conservatives have adopted Kacsmaryk’s Comstock argument. Conservative attorneys general invoked the Comstock Act to threaten pharmacies with criminal charges if they become certified to dispense mifepristone. ...

-snip-

Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/03/opinions/comstock-act-abortion-first-amendment-ziegler/index.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Jeebus! What's next? Resurrecting the Mann Act?

In my youth, I regularly crossed state lines to engage in sex.

[Eugene]

2. Yes. Some on the right are proposing Mann to fight "abortion trafficking" and "abortion tourism."

True, the Mann Act says nothing about abortion, but don't put that past the Project 2025 guys.

[2naSalit]

3. Chastity belts...

With a keypad to enter your PIN.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Only the women won't be given the PIN

Only their fathers and husbands

[2naSalit]

5. Well, yeah.

Who else would have it other than her owners?

[Irish_Dem]

6. Only the conservative judges get the PIN numbers.

[musclecar6]

7. To me

The conservative label means a person who is politically a knuckle dragging, regressive, highly controlling dumb shit. They may be OK people and fun to be with yada yada but when they start talking politics and they go down that road, they fit into that category that I just described.

Of course I’m one of those Libs, Commies, socialists, yada yada, but give me an intelligent, progressive trying to do well for other people not just a bunch of selfish assholes looking out for themselves and I’ll take that any day.

[Martin68]

8. We should cheer as the Republican Party gets farther and farther out on that branch of extremism.

In their own states, I might add, which will eventually lead to former supporters sawing off the branch behind them as they crawl out into Never-Never-Land.The pool of genuine supporters shrinks as they continue to compete to demonstrate that they are the most extreme people in the party, outrunning all but their most insane followers. These antics will also weaken the party in other states when people start to realize how fanatical and out of touch with reality they really are and start to fear what their own Republican representatives might do.

[slightlv]

9. This is dangerous stuff.

Kacsmaryk has a lot of money behind him... big money, no doubt. Not only Texas money. I have no doubt Ginnie Thomas type money. Leo Leonard type money. Opus Dei type money. Dominionist type money. Theocracy type money. Repug money. The fact he is probably a true believe makes him even more dangerous. He'll do it even without the money. He'll do it for his G-O-D.

This is why all states should go through their laws and rescind all these old laws from the books... not just leave them on the books. All the states have laws on their books that are no longer enforced. Their archaic, but like old ghosts they can rise from the dead to haunt the living at the worst of times. Like this Comstock law. This law can totally upend life for us women. Not just abortion. Not just drag shows. It can censor talk about sex, gender, health issues, even. It can us back 100+ years. And that's what they're aiming for.

Just look to the Middle East at what they're aiming for. They'll not be happy until we're all enveloped in our own chadors, waiting for our closest male relatives to escort us out the door for our monthly grocery shopping. Or to our segregated part of church for our Sunday worship service.

2024 election is about so much more than just who is president of the United States. It's about what the United States looks like for women and other minorities. It's about whether the country stays a democracy for everyone. It's about whether we stay a melting pot country, or whether the white male patriarchy declares the country closed... period. And, if so, becomes a satellite state of Russia.

[riversedge]

11. I agree. Very dangerous.

[LiberalFighter]

10. Cave dwellers