United States v. William Henry Fogarty

William Henry Fogarty was found guilty of three counts of mailing obscene matter, 18 U.S.C. § 1461 , and three counts of violating the Sexual Exploitation of Children Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2252 . His appeal raises three major issues, each with a number of sub-issues. The first group of issues challenges the district court’s finding that probable cause existed to support a search warrant. Another group of issues concerns the seizure of pictures and the scope of the search warrant. Finally, Fogarty challenges the constitutionality of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1461 and 2252.

After employees of a photographic film developing business notified the Torrance Police Department that a customer, Fogarty, was bringing to the store for developing film which depicted nude minor females, investigating officers obtained copies of the photographs and learned that the name and address given by Fogarty to employees in the film department was fictitious. Further investigation and surveillance eventually- led to Fogarty’s residence. In the course of obtaining Fogarty’s address, officers discovered that Fogarty had been convicted of indecent exposure and solicitation of lewd conduct in 1965 and that Fogarty had failed…