Anti-Smut Bill Ready 20 Jan 1961


Anti-Smut Bill Readied
By Frosty Troy
Trinune Capitol Correspondent
Oklahoma City, Jan, 20 [1961]-
Open season on obscene literature peddlers will be declared in the Legislature Monday when a strong, new control bill is introduced.
Sen. Cleeta John Rogers of Oklahoma City authored the bill, which will provide for stiff penalties for the sale and distribution of filty material on state newsstands.
Rogers said the bill will be followed by a second one providing for the vicil procedure for obtaining injunctions to halt sale and distribution.
The criminal bill is drafted along the lines of a Chigao ordinance which weathered an appeal to the Illinois state Supreme Court.
It was written on an outline laid down in two U.S. Supreme Court opinions on obscene literature.
Numerous House and Senate Members want to co-author the bills with Rogers because they are feeling the heat from bak home.
Education and civic groups are demanding something be done about the increasing flow of dirty magazines.
While details of the criminal bill will not be released until Monday, it is known that there will be no attempt at censorship.
“Each case has to stand on its own merit,” a spokesman said. “If the books are declared by a competent court to be pornographic, or obscene, they can be banned. This is not a blanket censorship law.”
The Legislature created a state Literture Commission four years ago but failed to give it funds or weapons to fight with.