Monday, October 22, 2007

Captain Crab's Legal Tidbit of the Day

The following is from Near v. Minnesota. The case concerned the "Public Nuisance Law of 1925". It was also referred to as the "Minnesota Gag Law". The law was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 1931.

The State Supreme Court wrote that a scandalous publication "annoys, injures and endangers the comfort and repose of a considerable number of persons," and so constituted a nuisance just as surely as "places where intoxicating liquor is illegally sold," "houses of prostitution," "dogs," "malicious fences," "itinerant carnivals," "lotteries," and "noxious weeds." The court considered that a newspaper may also endanger safety, because "scandalous material" tended to disturb the peace and provoke assaults.

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