Jacobson v. United States

Facts

In February 1984, petitioner, a 56-year-old Nebraskan farmer, ordered two magazines and a brochure from a California adult bookstore. The magazines were entitled Bare Boys I and Bare Boys II. Petitioner testified that he had expected to receive images of young men 18 or older and was shocked to see pictures of very young boys. Three months after receiving the magazines, the law changed making it illegal to receive sexually explicit images of children through the mail. Postal inspectors found petitioner’s name on a mailing list for the bookstore and, for the next 2 and 1/2 years, there were repeated efforts by two Government agencies to explore petitioner’s willingness to break the new law. Communications from the Postal Service included letters from fictitious organizations and a fake pen pal and Customs Service also included petitioner in its own child pornography sting using a fictitious Canadian company. Finally, the Postal Service sent petitioner a letter from the “Far Eastern Trading Company Ltd.” regarding American media’s “hysterical nonsense” over “‘pornography'” and the “millions of dollars” the government was spending to exercise “international censorship.” Petitioner responded to the letter requesting more information and signing an affirmation he was not a government agent. Petitioner was then sent a catalog and ordered a pornographic magazine entitled Boys Who Love Boys. Petitioner was arrested during a controlled delivery of a photocopy of the magazine. At trial, petitioner testified that the Government had succeeded in piquing his curiosity due to its comments about censorship. Other than the Bare Boys magazines and the Government’s own communications, no other materials were found in petitioner’s home to suggest an active interest in child pornography.