Word: scienter
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None of the obscenity cases promises to answer lower-court prayers for clarification of last term's Ginzburg decision. But two may clarify the doctrine of scienter (to know), the requirement that a smut seller must have "guilty knowledge" that his wares are obscene before he is criminally liable. In a New York case, Times Square Bookstore Clerk Robert Redrup was convicted of selling paperbacks titled Lust Pool and Shame Agent to a plainclothes cop who asked him why he sold such "garbage." Said Redrup: "There's worse stuff around." Redrup argues that his comment failed to prove...
Last week Italy's influential clerical weekly Palestra del Clero pointed out that the original decree provided a loophole for just such discretionary application. The Pope spoke of those who became Communists scienter and libere-with full knowledge and full freedom of choice. "These two adverbs, if fully understood." said Palestra, "prevent any excessive rigor in the application of what the decree lays down ... It is evidently up to the cleric in each individual case to distinguish between true willful Communists and those who are victims of illusion, hence of ignorance; between those who have freely chosen to belong...
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