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Philip D. Harvey owns a mail order business specializing in erotic video and other adult material. He and many others like him were targeted in 1986 by the government (when the Justice Department was being run by Edwin Meese) on charges of obscenity in order to shut them down.
It took years for his travails to end - a final settlement with the federal government was not reached until 1993. Harvey wrote "Government Vs. Erotica: The Siege of Adam and Eve" describing his experiences, his legal battle, and the nature of government repression of erotica. He was kind enough to agree to an interview about his book and his experiences, the text of which appears below:
1. How did you get started selling erotic material by mail?
Erotica by mail began as condoms by mail. In 1969, with colleague Tim Black, I undertook an experiment in mail-order selling of condoms as part of my master's degree work in family planning at the University of North Carolina. Mail-order condoms were illegal at the time under an 1872 "Comstock law" which categorized all contraceptives (and information about contraception and abortion) as obscene. Because of the law no one else was selling condoms by mail and the orders just came rolling in. Tim and I had no experience in business, but we could see that more money was coming in than going out, so we figured that mail-order condoms could form the basis for a viable commercial enterprise.
I read books about mail order and one thing was clear: you couldn't expect to make money on the first order coming in from ads in magazines and newspapers. You had to have more merchandise to sell to your buyers though a catalog or similar format. So we began offering books about reproduction and sexuality and then a whole variety of merchandise, including everything from ship-building kits to leisure wear to digital clocks. Our customers yawned at those offerings but whenever we put in something with erotic appeal, magazines or books or even lingerie, the orders immediately increased. From there we added sex toys, lubricants, and sexually explicit videos.
2. Did you ever have any suspicion or indication that your fight with the government would go on for so long? Why or why not?
We certainly had no idea that our battle with the Federal government would be drawn out for eight years. Our experience with the prosecution under state law in nearby Alamance County, for example, was finished in less than a year with a very quick "Not Guilty" verdict from the Alamance County jury. While we did our best to continue discussing and negotiating with the government to forestall an indictment and the expense and risk of another trial, it seems highly unlikely, even in retrospect, that the process would drag out as long as it did. The Feds simply couldn't make up their minds about what they wanted to do. The US Attorney's office in Salt Lake City seemed to feel that the US attorney in Raleigh North Carolina should make the first move; the North Carolina people, on the other hand, were clearly disturbed by our acquittal in nearby (and very conservative) Alamance County, and thought the government would have a better shot at us in the distant Utah jurisdiction. That equivocation, and our continuing efforts at negotiations, dragged things out, as did all of the normal slowness with which things are done by the government.
That this process was so protracted was certainly also a reflection of the fact that everyone knew we weren't causing any harm. There was just no need for urgency on an erotica case in a world in which real crimes were continuing to occur every day. So they let it drag on.
3. What was the most satisfying event or moment during the fight with the government, and why?
There were two particularly satisfying moments in our struggle with the federal behemoth. The first, unquestionably, was the very fast acquittal in Alamance County. Our whole company had mobilized to support our defense at that trial and thirty or forty of our staff were on hand in the courthouse on the day the not guilty verdict was handed down. We celebrated for the rest of the day and, off and on, for some weeks thereafter. I remember Wade Smith, one of our defense attorneys at a celebratory dinner at the Angus Barn in Raleigh pointing out that "there are very few moments in life, Phil, that we really get to sit back and savor and this is one of them."
The second moment was a little less predictable. It came when I realized that the zealous efforts of the federal government to shut down mail-order sellers of erotic material had so decimated our competition that we were getting more customers and more good business as a result. A rough calculation suggested that the increased profits resulting from those prosecutions provided enough extra income to Adam & Eve to offset the legal expenses of our battle with the federal authorities. A nice feeling.
4. Why do you think that the government expends so many resources fighting the sale of sexually explicit material? Why do you think that the government invested so many resources in fighting you in particular?
Why the federal government (and a good many state and local governments) expend substantial resources in an effort to suppress sexually explicit material remains something of a mystery. The vast majority of Americans are perfectly comfortable letting their neighbors watch and read whatever kinds of sexual materials they wish in the privacy of their own homes as long as that freedom does not impinge on the rights of others (as it practically never does). However, there is a small but significant number of people for whom human sexuality is truly frightening and to whom sexual images seem really dangerous. Those people, in government, pursue "pornography" as a top priority.
I have researched this matter in some detail because our sexuality, as something essential to the survival of humanity, should not be something that frightens us. Rather sexuality should be something that we celebrate as a form of bonding and communication between adults resulting in the most creative of all human activities. But despite this, there is a coterie of frightened people for whom the suppression of all visible aspects of sexuality is a very high priority. I quote Marty Kline, a particularly thoughtful sexoligist, in my book (p.195):
There are a lot of people who just don't want sexual experimentation going on in the world. It reminds them that they have that desire themselves, desires that they are scared by or feel ashamed of or guilty about. Unapologetic sexuality opens up the possibility of a form of freedom - a choice - that sex-fearful people don't want to have. Rather they try and shut down those sexual activities out there that they're scared of wanting to do themselves.... Such a person might say to himself, "I'm a terrible failure. I wasn't able to protect people, I wasn't able to protect the children, the innocent children." Children have nothing to do with it, but that's what they say. "I haven't lived up to what God wants from me...."
As to why the government worked so hard to defeat Adam & Eve, there is the fact that we were and are a pretty good-sized company in the field of adult erotic materials, both through our catalog sales and more recently on the internet (adameve.com). But an important part of the reason the government spent so much effort attacking our company was simply the fact that we fought back. They indicted at least seven other mail-order companies in several different jurisdictions at once and those companies quickly arrived at plea bargain arrangements that put them out of business. We were the only ones left standing so they had to spend a lot of money and effort on us if they were going to eliminate us, something they fervently hoped to do and which, I'm pleased to say, they failed to do.
5. After the settlement with the government, has there been any other incidents of harassment or investigation? What does the local community think about you and your business now (if they give you any thought at all)?
After our settlement in 1993, we have had no harassment from nor even any communication with the Department of Justice. This does not mean that there are no plans afoot for prosecuting Adam & Eve, particularly given the extreme views of the present Attorney General on this subject. On the other hand, I believe we are well positioned to defend ourselves and we are certainly prepared to do so if necessary.
The local community in Hillsborough, North Carolina, despite a tumultuous town meeting at which a group of preachers from other communities objected to our moving here, has been welcoming and supportive. Adam & Eve employees have always been active in local charities, first in Carrboro (about 10 miles south of our present offices where we were located for nearly 20 years) and now in Hillsborough. Those efforts are appreciated and I believe we are regarded here as a valuable corporate citizen providing jobs, paying taxes, and joining in important community activities. As you suggest, I suspect that most people give no thought whatever to the nature of our business.
6. What sorts of reactions have you received about your book?
I have been pleased and to some extent surprised by reactions to my book. Defense attorneys and others interested in First Amendment issues are quite enthusiastic about it and tell me they have learned valuable lessons from it. They also remind me that they depend very heavily on the precedents set by our lawsuit (PHE, Inc v. US Department of Justice) in defending obscenity related cases. The intellectual freedom roundtable at the American Library Association nominated the book as one of the best books on intellectual freedom in recent years. Sales have been fairly good. The book has had more than fifteen reviews, most of them at least moderately positive, and a few very positive. I would like the book to be better known and more widely read because I believe it contains a great deal of information of interest of people who are not lawyers or specialists in First Amendment issues, but authors always want that.
7. What sorts of lessons do you hope people will learn from your book and from your experiences?
The principal lesson I hope that readers will learn from my book and from our experience is that in a free and democratic society we should permit each other to read and view books, magazines, videos, and other materials as we see fit, provided only that we do not interfere with the rights of others in the process. To me it is quite preposterous for one person to tell another how he or she should pursue happiness. You may derive great pleasure from collecting butterflies, others from sexual activity, others from gourmet cuisine. How can any one of us presume to dictate to others how such pleasures and pastimes should be pursued and which ones should be allowed? The only reasonable answer is that we should let each person decide for himself unless they are interfering with others' rights.
A second lesson is that, when you believe you are right, you should stand and fight. Principles are important. Further, integrity is a vital component of any successful business. If you run your business honestly and pay your taxes (however unfairly onerous they may be), you are likely to have what it takes to withstand an attack of the kind that was made on us. Thus, people should tolerate the foibles of others, should be scrupulously honest, and should have the courage to stand up for their convictions when necessary.
8. Looking back on it all now, do you think it was worth all of the aggravation, time and money? Is there anything you regret or wish you had done differently?
Yes, it was worth all of the aggravation, time and money, and then some. Our only options in 1986 were to fight or to capitulate. Capitulation would not only have destroyed a dynamic and growing business, it would have undermined the personal integrity and self-worth of those of us most directly involved. To have capitulated in the face of an attack by people who (it was demonstrated) were abusing their positions of authority, acting in bad faith, and trying to impose their religious and moral views on others in the most inappropriate fashion, would have been cowardly and humiliating. Taking a stand, and winning under those circumstances, is life enhancing. Indeed, the process itself - the fight - was invigorating and healthy. Knowing what I know now, we would have been even more determined to do what we did in 1986 and 1987.
Is there anything I would have done differently? Sure. We should have introduced our sex therapist screening process sooner than we did. Having outside experts review our explicit videos and magazines not only assures us of a certain amount of legal protection, but makes it possible for all of us who work at Adam & Eve to feel good about our products, to feel confident that what we sell is helpful to people and in no way harmful. That could have been started sooner.
I sometimes regret having being so polite and accommodating to federal authorities when they were on our premises, but that is probably a false regret. It usually makes sense to cooperate with the authorities even when (perhaps especially when) you are preparing to do battle with them.
I wish I could have done something about the conditions in the Alamance County jail. I had only to spend a few minutes there being fingerprinted and photographed, but at least one prisoner I observed there was being held under depressingly awful conditions.
Mostly, I think, we made the right choices.
Thank you for taking the time for the above questions. I hope that everyone interested in issues of censorship and erotica takes a look at your book.
Learn more about Philip's book!
