Augustus Noble Hand

Augustus Noble Hand (July 26, 1869 – October 28, 1954) was an American judge who served on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and later on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. His most notable rulings restricted the reach of obscenity statutes in the areas of literature and contraceptives. He was the older first cousin of famed judge Learned Hand, who served on both courts with his cousin during most of Augustus Hand's tenure.

Hand was born in Elizabethtown, New York. He received an A.B. from Harvard in 1890, and earned an L.L.B. at Harvard Law School in 1894. He then established a private practice in New York City, which he maintained until 1914, when he was nominated by President Woodrow Wilson to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Hand was confirmed by the Senate and received his commission on September 30, 1914. He served on the District Court until he received a recess appointment from Calvin Coolidge, elevating him to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He was confirmed by the Senate on January 18, 1928.

Hand became a senior judge on the Second Circuit on June 30, 1953. His service on the bench ended with his death on October 28, 1954, in Middlebury, Vermont. He was married to Susan Train Hand. He was buried in Elizabethtown.

One of Hand's best-known decisions was rendered in the case of United States v. One Package, 86 F.2d 737 (2d Cir. 1934), in which he ruled that contraceptives, when imported by a licensed physician, were not immoral or obscene devices banned under the provisions incorporated into the Tariff Act of 1930. Hand wrote that "we are satisfied that this statute, as well as all the acts we have referred to, embraced only such articles as Congress would have denounced as immoral if it had understood all the conditions under which they were to be used. Its design, in our opinion, was not to prevent the importation, sale, or carriage by mail of things which might intelligently be employed by conscientious and competent physicians for the purpose of saving life or promoting the well being of their patients."

...
Wikipedia