Originally Posted by Deeg
It has certainly been used many times as a basis for seizure and civil forfeiture. You should read the law...there's a whole lot of items which are specifically prohibited from importation. And that's just one statute. People don't realize just how complicated import laws can be -- after all, they have an entire title (19) of the US Code.
I'm only questioning a seizure based on an expressive work being, "immoral." If I want to bring in a non-obscene (by the Miller standard) pamphlet advocating, for example, premarital sex, it would be a First Amendment violation to preclude it.
A quick search turned up two Supreme Court cases, both finding §1305 to be Constitutional. See US v 12-200 ft. Reels of Film (413 U.S. 123) from 1973 and US v Thirty-seven Photographs (402 U.S. 363) from 1971. These were both obscenity cases. I didn't turn up challenges to the other provisions in my cursory search.
As I said, obscenity-based seizures are not constitutionally problematic. I have a problem with the "immorality" provision. At best, it's impermissibly vague and, at worst, a substantive infringement of 1st, 4th and 5th Amendment rights.