Augustus Noble Hand | |
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| Senior Judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit | |
| In office June 30, 1953 – October 28, 1954 | |
| Judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit | |
| In office May 19, 1927 – June 30, 1953 | |
| Appointed by | Calvin Coolidge |
| Preceded by | Charles Merrill Hough |
| Succeeded by | John Marshall Harlan |
| Judge of theUnited States District Court for the Southern District of New York | |
| In office September 30, 1914 – June 1, 1927 | |
| Appointed by | Woodrow Wilson |
| Preceded by | George Chandler Holt |
| Succeeded by | Frank Joseph Coleman |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Augustus Noble Hand (1869-07-26)July 26, 1869 Elizabethtown,New York, U.S. |
| Died | October 28, 1954(1954-10-28) (aged 85) Middlebury,Vermont, U.S. |
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| Education | Harvard University (AB,LLB) |
Augustus Noble Hand (July 26, 1869 – October 28, 1954) was aUnited States district judge of theUnited States District Court for the Southern District of New York and later was a United States Circuit Judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. His most notable rulings restricted the reach of obscenity statutes in the areas of literature andcontraceptives. He was the older first cousin of famed judgeLearned Hand, who served on both courts with his cousin during most of Augustus Hand's tenure.
Born inElizabethtown,New York, Hand received anArtium Baccalaureus degree fromHarvard University in 1890, and earned a law degree fromHarvard Law School in 1894. He then established a private practice inNew York City, which he maintained until 1914.[1]
Hand was nominated by PresidentWoodrow Wilson on September 28, 1914, to a seat on theUnited States District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated by JudgeGeorge Chandler Holt. He was confirmed by theUnited States Senate on September 30, 1914, and received his commission the same day. His service terminated on June 1, 1927, due to his elevation to the Second Circuit.[1]
Hand received arecess appointment from PresidentCalvin Coolidge on May 19, 1927, to a seat on theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated by JudgeCharles Merrill Hough. He was nominated to the same position by President Coolidge on December 6, 1927. He was confirmed by the Senate on January 18, 1928, and received his commission the same day. He assumedsenior status on June 30, 1953. His service terminated on October 28, 1954, due to his death inMiddlebury,Vermont.[1]
One of Hand's best-known decisions was rendered in the case ofUnited States v. One Package, 86 F.2d 737 (2d Cir. 1934), in which he ruled thatcontraceptives, when imported by a licensedphysician, were not immoral or obscene devices banned under theComstock Law provisions incorporated into the Tariff Act of 1930. Hand wrote that "we are satisfied that this statute, as well as all the acts we have referred to, embraced only such articles as Congress would have denounced as immoral if it had understood all the conditions under which they were to be used. Its design, in our opinion, was not to prevent the importation, sale, or carriage by mail of things which might intelligently be employed by conscientious and competent physicians for the purpose of saving life or promoting the well being of their patients."[citation needed]
The same year, Hand further limited the Tariff Act's restrictions inUnited States v. One Book Called Ulysses, 72 F.2d 705 (2d Cir. 1934), which ruled that the novelUlysses, byJames Joyce, was not obscene and therefore could not be banned from import into the United States. The opinion was significant in its urging that any test of obscenity could not rely on mere isolated passages but instead had to consider the work as a whole, a test theSupreme Court later endorsed.[2] These principles, filtered through a long line of later cases, ultimately influenced the United States Supreme Court's case law on obscenity standards.[2] Hand's opinion also displayed a historical perspective of the harm of overzealous censorship:
Art certainly cannot advance under compulsion to traditional forms, and nothing in such a field is more stifling to progress than limitation of the right to experiment with a new technique. The foolish judgments ofLord Eldon about one hundred years ago, proscribing the works ofByron andSouthey, and the finding by the jury under a charge byLord Denman that the publication ofShelley's "Queen Mab" was an indictable offense are a warning to all who have to determine the limits of the field within which authors may exercise themselves. We think that Ulysses is a book of originality and sincerity of treatment and that it has not the effect of promoting lust. Accordingly it does not fall within the statute, even though it justly may offend many.[3]
Hand's cousin, JudgeLearned Hand, joined in Augustus Hand's opinion;Chief JudgeMartin Manton dissented.
In 1946, Hand was temporarily assigned to a three-judge panel of the New York Southern District Court for the U.S. government'santitrust case against the eight largest movie distributors. The court'sper curiam decree inUnited States v. Paramount Pictures, 70 F.Supp. 53 (S.D.N.Y. 1946), significantly altered the motion picture industry in the United States, by forbidding the distributors from colluding with movie theaters in such anti-competitive licensing practices asprice-fixing.[citation needed]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)| Legal offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Judge of theUnited States District Court for the Southern District of New York 1914–1927 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit 1927–1953 | Succeeded by |
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