HABITS OF THE "BOHEMIAN" ELEMENT OF SAN FRANCISCO'S NORTH BEACH. HE SAID THAT THIS GROUP OF PEOPLE IS GENERALLY QUITE OPEN ABOUT SEX AND ARE QUITE ACTIVE SEXUALLY, BUT THAT THERE IS LITTLE OR NO PLEASURE INVOLVED IN SEX FOR THEM, HE SAID THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE PERHAPS BEST CHARACTERIZED AS BEING HIGHLY DISTURBED, BUT ALSO HIGHLY ARTICULATE.
FINALLY, DR. BAILEY WAS ASKED IF HE THOUGHT THAT THE MORALITY OF A PARTICULAR GROUP SHOULD BE FORCED ONTO A COMMUNITY BY LAW. HE ANSWERED THAT IT SHOULD NOT.
Obscenity Ordinance Ruling
The Supreme Court last month struck down a Los Angeles city ordinance making it a crime for a bookseller to have an obscene book in his possession.
Justice William J. Brannan Jr., speaking for the court, said the ordinance, though aimed at obscene matter, "has such a tendency to inhibit constitutionally protected expression" that it cannot stand.
The case was started by Eleazar Smith, 73, proprietor of a Los Angeles book store, who was sentenced to 30 days in jail for having a book about Lesbianism entitled "Sweeter Than Life" by Mark Tryon.
Brennan noted that the court has held that obscene speech and writings are not protected by the Constitution's guarantee of free speech.
But, he said, the ordinance in question would tend to penalize book-sellers "even though they had not the slight. est notion of the character of the books they sold." Seven justices agreed with Brennan; Justice John Harlan wont along part way.
"If the bookseller is criminally liable without knowledge of the contents, and the ordinance fulfills its purpose," he added, "he will tend to restrict the books he sells to those he has inspected. And thus the state will have imposed a restriction upon the distribution of constituti onally protected literature."
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