Comstock Act

(noun)

A collection of state and federal restrictions that made it illegal to send any, "obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious" materials through the mail, including contraceptive devices and information. In addition to banning contraceptives, this act also banned the distribution of educational information about abortion.

Related Terms

Examples of Comstock Act in the following topics:

  • The New Feminism

    • Anthony Comstock, a postal inspector and leader in the purity movement, successfully lobbied for the passage of the 1873 Comstock Act, a federal law prohibiting the mailing of, "any article or thing designed or intended for the prevention of conception or procuring of abortion," as well as any form of contraceptive information.
    • Many states also passed similar laws (collectively known as the Comstock laws), that extended the federal law by outlawing the use of contraceptives as well as their distribution.
    • At the turn of the century, an energetic movement arose that sought to overturn anti-obscenity laws and the Comstock Acts.
    • Under the influence of Goldman and the Free Speech League, Sanger became determined to challenge the Comstock Acts that outlawed the dissemination of contraceptive information.

  • Women in the West

    • In 1860, in the Comstock Lode region of Nevada, for example, there were reportedly only 30 women in a town with some 2,500 men.
    • Protestant missionaries eventually joined the women in their efforts, and Congress responded by passing both the Comstock Law (named after its chief proponent, anti-obscenity crusader Anthony Comstock) in 1873 to ban the spread of “lewd and lascivious literature” through the mail, and the subsequent Page Act of 1875 to prohibit transportation of women into the United States for employment as prostitutes.

  • Mining on the Comstock Lode

    • The Comstock Lode was the first major U.S. discovery of silver ore, located in what is now Virginia City, Nevada in 1857.
    • The Comstock Lode was the first major U.S. discovery of silver ore, located in what is now Virginia City, Nevada, on the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range.
    • The Comstock Lode is notable not just for the immense fortunes it generated and the large role those fortunes had in the growth of Nevada and San Francisco, but also for the advances in mining technology that it spurred.
    • Unlike most silver ore deposits, which occur in long thin veins, those of the Comstock Lode occurred in discrete masses, often hundreds of feet thick.

  • Gold Fever in the West

    • Each camp had its own rules and often handed out justice by popular vote, sometimes acting fairly and at times exercising vigilantism—with Indians, Mexicans, and Chinese generally receiving the harshest sentences.
    • The discovery of the Comstock Lode, containing vast amounts of silver, resulted in the Nevada boomtowns of Virginia City, Carson City, and Silver City.

  • Higher Education

    • President Johnson's Great Society made improvements to elementary, secondary, and higher education through a series of acts.
    • The Act also began a transition from federally-funded institutional assistance to individual student aid.
    • The Higher Education Act of 1965 was reauthorized in 1968, 1971, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1986, 1992, 1998, and 2008.
    • This signing plaque rests on campus grounds of Texas State University commemorating the Higher Education Act.
    • Distinguish the key features - as well as the effects - of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Higher Education Facilities Act, and the Higher Education Act.

  • The Coercive Acts

    • Four of the acts were issued in direct response to the Boston Tea Party of December 1773.
    • Many colonists, however, viewed the acts as an arbitrary violation of their rights.
    • The first of the acts passed in response to the Boston Tea Party was the Boston Port Act.
    • The Massachusetts Government Act provoked even more outrage than the Port Act because it unilaterally altered the government of Massachusetts to bring it under control of the British government.
    • Although many colonists found the Quartering Act objectionable, it generated the least amount of protest of the Coercive Acts.

  • Enforcing the Navigation Acts

    • These Acts formed the basis for British overseas trade for nearly 200 years.
    • Later revisions of the Act added new regulations.
    • The Acts were in full force for a short time only.
    • On the whole, the Navigation Acts were more or less obeyed by colonists, despite their dissatisfaction, until the Molasses and Sugar Acts.
    • Describe the central stipulations of the Navigation Acts and the Acts' effects on the political and economic situation in the colonies

  • The Alien and Sedition Acts

    • The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 were a series of laws that aimed to outlaw speech that was critical of the government.
    • The Naturalization Act repealed and replaced the Naturalization Act of 1795 and extended the duration of residence required for aliens to become citizens of the United States from five years to fourteen years.
    • Enacted July 6, 1798, and providing no expiration provision, the act remains intact today as Title 50 of U.S.
    • The most controversial arrest made under the Alien and Sedition Acts was of a member of Congress.
    • While the Alien and Sedition Acts were left largely unenforced after 1800, the Alien Act was later used to justify the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and the Supreme Court was grappling with the constitutionality of the Sedition Acts as late as the 1960s.

  • The Acts of Parliament

    • Two 18th-century acts of the Parliament of Great Britain, known together as the Quartering Acts, ordered the local governments of the American colonies to provide housing and provisions for British soldiers.
    • Following the expiration of an act that provided British regulars with quartering in New York, Parliament passed the Quartering Act of 1765, which went far beyond what Gage had requested.
    • An amendment to the original Quartering Act was passed on June 2, 1774.
    • This act was passed and enforced along with many others, known by the colonists as the "Intolerable Acts."  
    • This act expired on March 24, 1776.

  • Tax Protests

    • The first wave of protests attacked the Stamp Act of 1765, and marked the first time Americans from each of the thirteen colonies met together and planned a common front against illegal taxes.
    • The Parliament attempted a series of taxes and punishments which met more and more resistance, namely the First Quartering Act (1765), the Declaratory Act (1766), the Townshend Revenue Act (1767), and the Tea Act (1773).
    • In response to the Boston Tea Party Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts: the Second Quartering Act (1774), the Quebec Act (1774), the Massachusetts Government Act (1774), the Administration of Justice Act (1774), the Boston Port Act (1774), and the Prohibitory Act (1775).