My county lawyer contact clued me in to a real corker of a legal drama. According to the Sacramento County Code, sales of “crime comic books” to children under 18 is a misdemeanor. It dates from 1959 and there is no way to read it that doesn’t make it a crime to sell kids almost any comic book in which superheroes fight crime.
The Board of Supervisors specifically finds that the prohibition against the sale to or circulation of crime “comic†books to children is a reasonable measure to meet the clear and present danger hereinabove found. (Ord. 652 § 1, 1959.)
Among the findings that caused the “clear and present danger” was the finding that “Many children have been incited to commit crimes as a consequence of looking at crime ‘comic’ books.”
