Carrying the Bible an Offense?

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 3:41 PM 2/14/96, Sten Drescher wrote:
>"Declan B. McCullagh" <declan+@CMU.EDU> said:
>
>DBM> (I assume your Bible argument is just posturing. No
>DBM> U.S. Attorney, political appointees they, ever will prosecute
>DBM> someone who puts the complete text of the King James Bible
>DBM> online.)
>
>        You assume wrong.  While I certainly agree that no
>U.S. Attorney would voluntarily prosecute such a case, what happens
>when an athiest files charges against someone for carrying the Bible?
>IANAL, but couldn't the U.S. Attorney be forced to prosecute?

I'm also not a lawyer, but no prosecution is possible in this situation.
Not in this country. A case must be presented to a grand jury (remember the
Zimmermann case?) and no grand jury in the United States would do this.

There are two further points which need clearing up:

1. Private citizens (the atheist in this case) do not file criminal
charges. They may swear out a complaint ("I witnessed John Doe carrying a
Bible"), but they do not file criminal charges.

2. The "carrying of a Bible" is not covered by the CDA.

No prosecutor can be "forced" to prosecute, absent approval by a grand
jury. (And if a prosecutor doesn't want to indict a ham sandwich, it won't
be indicted.)

--Tim May

[This Bible excerpt awaiting review under the Communications Decency Act]
And then Lot said, "I have some mighty fine young virgin daughters. Why
don't you boys just come on in and fuck them right here in my house - I'll just
watch!"....Later, up in the mountains, the younger daughter said. "Dad's
getting old. I say we should fuck him." So the two daughters got him drunk and
screwed him all that night. Sure enough, Dad got them pregnant....Onan really
hated the idea of doing his brother's wife and getting her pregnant while
his brother got all the credit, so he pulled out before he
came....Remember, it's not a good idea to have sex with your sister, your
brother, your parents,
your pet dog, or the farm animals, unless God tells you to. [excerpts from
the Old Testament, Modern Vernacular Translation, TCM, 1996]