Henry Scott
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Hicklin Rule was named after Benjamin Hicklin, a recorder in London following the Regina v. Hicklin court case in 1868. This case was brought against Henry Scott because he had created an offensive anti-Catholic booklet called “The Confessional Unmasked.” The consequence of this hearing was a definition of what was considered illegally obscene at the time: "the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences [such as small children], and into whose hands a publication of this sort may fall." But of course the wealthy did not include themsleves in this catogory, becuase they felt that they would not be corrupted.
Hicklin allowed for passages to be judged when taken out of context, wherein if one small portion of a work was deemed obscene, the entire work would be outlawed. He also condoned the use of search warrants in the event of suspected retail or circulation of obscene materials.
This English law was soon adopted by the United States and was enforced by Anthony Comstock, a special agent of the United States Post Office. In 1873, Comstock proposed that the Hicklin Rule be extended to prohibit “any article or thing designed or intended for the prevention of conception or procuring of abortion.” This became known as the Comstock Law. Although this law led to several court hearings, the outcome was usually based on the Hicklin definition of obscenity.
