In 1969, theSupreme Court of the United States ruled inStanley v. Georgia that people could view whatever they wished in the privacy of their own homes. In response, theUnited States Congress funded thePresident's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, set up by PresidentLyndon B. Johnson to studypornography.
The Commission was established to study and report on:[1]
Initially, the Commission consisted of Edward E. Elson, Thomas D. Gill, Edward D. Greenwood, ReverendMorton A. Hill, S.J., G. William Jones, Joseph T. Klapper, Otto N. Larsen, Rabbi Irving Lehrman, Freeman Lewis, Reverend Winfrey C. Link, Morris A. Lipton, William B. Lockhart (chair),Thomas C. Lynch, Barbara Scott, Cathryn A. Speits,Frederick Herbert Wagman,Kenneth Keating andMarvin Wolfgang.
Subsequently, K. Keating was replaced withCharles Keating, Jr, by PresidentRichard Nixon.
Wm. Cody Wilson served as Executive Director of the Commission, directing both surveys of existing research and original empirical esearch on the subject.[2]
The Commission commissionedBerl Kutchinsky to perform a scientific study on the subject. His report, titledStudies on Pornography and Sex Crimes in Denmark (1970), found that legalizing pornography inDenmark had not (as had been expected) resulted in an increase of sex crimes.[3][4]
The Commission's report, calledReport of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography,[5] and published in 1970, recommendedsex education, funding of research into the effects of pornography and restriction of children's access to pornography, and recommended against any restrictions for adults. On balance the report found that obscenity and pornography were not important social problems, that there was no evidence that exposure to such material was harmful to individuals, and that current legal and policy initiatives were more likely to create problems than solve them.[1]
The report was widely criticized and rejected by Congress.[1] TheSenate rejected the Commission's findings and recommendations by a 60–5 vote, with 34 abstentions.[6] The Senate rejected the following findings and recommendations in particular:[6]
President Nixon, who had succeeded Johnson in 1969, also emphatically rejected the report.[7]
In 1970,Earl Kemp published an illustrated edition of thePresidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography through a publishing company owned byWilliam Hamling called Greenleaf Classics.
The 1969 President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography issued its un-illustrated 656-page report on September 30, 1970. One month later, the report went on sale at theGovernment Printing Office. On November 11, 1970, copies of publisherWilliam Hamling's Greenleaf Classics’ 352-pageThe Illustrated Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography were printed, and two weeks later, on Monday, December 13, 1970, went on sale throughout the U.S. for $12.50.[8][9]
Kemp and Hamling were eventually sentenced to prison for "conspiracy to mail obscene material," but both served only the federal minimum.[10][11]
Hamling received a four-year regular adult sentence.[12]Earl Kemp received a sentence of three years and one day.[12] The report as published by Greenleaf was not found to be obscene.[13] Nonetheless, on the other hand the brochure was found to be clearly obscene by the jury. Of some note, Earl Kemp was in Europe at the time Hamling created and mailed the ad brochure.[14]
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