◆ SpookStack

(eo et to resolve the pertinent questions of law and furnish judicial guidance for our future actiona,""° The claimant has not, however, sought review of the Secretary's action, and my decision on the Government's libel implies nothing as to the correctness of his action. The question which is before me for decision, there- fore, 4s whether §305(a) of the Tariff Act of 1930, in prohibit- ing the importation of “obscene” material prohibits the impor- tation of material which may be assumed to appeal to the prurient interest of the “average person," if the only persons who will have access to the materiel will study it for the purposes of scientific research, and if, as to those who alone will have access to the material, there is no reasonable probability that it will appeal to their prurient interest. In short, the question presented for decision is the meaning of the word "obacene” in §305(a) of the Tariff act of 1930.21 10 paipel affidavit, gupra, note 9, page 4, end Exhibit a. It appears, from the reference of the Secretary to United States v. One Package, 86 F.2d 737 (2d Cir. 1936), tnat the articles to r) oretary referred were contraceptives. But the second proviso of §305(a) allows the Secretary to “admit the so-called @lassics or books of recognised and established literary or scientific merit." See note 9, supra. 11 ym arriving at my conclusion on this aspect of the case I have relied upon a number of cases arising under what 4s now 18 U.S.C. $1461 (Supp. IV) prohibiting use of the mails for the transportation of, inter alia, obscene matter. The -T-