On April 21st, when Magistrate Rosenbluth called the case, the attitude in the courtroom was far different from anything exhibited at previous birth control hearings. Only one witness was heard that day, Mrs. McNamara. In spite of the hostility of Assistant District Attorney Hogan, which was to be expected, and in spite of the Magistrate’s prompting that she was a policewoman and not required to tell all, Mrs. McNamara was made to confess she had set out deliberately to deceive the clinic doctors. As she testified under Mr. Ernst’s cross-examination what she had done, her stolid face turned from pink to purple. On her first visit she had learned the routine and on her second, being left alone, had copied down the number of every name card lying on Dr. Stone’s desk.
Murmurs rose among the spectators, a melodious sound to ears still echoing with the harsh and suspicious accents of a mere twelve years before.
After forty minutes Magistrate Rosenbluth adjourned the hearing over our protests; if the object had been to secure a quieter and less sympathetic audience the ensuing day it failed. Now physicians took the stand: Dr. Dickinson, Dr. Frederick C. Holden, Dr. Foster Kennedy, the neurologist. The climax came when Mr. Hogan asked Dr. Louis T. Harris, former Commissioner of Health of New York City, whether he had ever given any information to a patient regardless of a marriage certificate. Dr. Harris answered, “The birth control clinic is a public health work. Every woman desiring treatment is asked whether she is married.”
“Don’t they have to bring their marriage certificates with them?”
“No.”
The Magistrate leaned forward ponderously and heavily. “Does not the clinic send out social workers to discover the truth of patients’ statements?”
Mr. Ernst interpolated, “Did you ever know of a situation where a doctor dispatched a detective to find out whether his patient were married?”
Loud laughter came from the listeners. Judge Rosenbluth pounded his gavel. “Unless there is absolute silence I shall clear the court room.” Then, seeming to grow more angry, he added, “On second thought I shall clear it anyhow. Out you go.”
The joke was on him. It was the doctors who had laughed the loudest and their presence as witnesses could not be dispensed with. Following a fifteen-minute recess the audience was once again in the room, more partisan than ever.
Young Mr. Hogan tried to be dramatic, but he failed before our attorney’s cold uncompromising logic. He took up one of the pessaries that had been appropriated in the raid and addressed Dr. Harris. “You know that the laws of New York State are that contraception may be given only for the cure or prevention of disease. Do you dare to claim this article will cure tuberculosis? Will it cure cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease?”