Thus, in a case indistinguishable in principle from that before us, the Ninth Circuit expressly held in United States v. Barnett , 667 F.2d 835 (9th
Cir. 1982), that the First Amendment does not provide pub- lishers a defense as a matter of law to charges of aiding and abetting a crime through the
publication and distribution of instructions on how to make illegal drugs. In rejecting the publisher's argument that there could be no probable cause
to believe that a crime had been committed because its actions were shielded by the First Amendment, and thus a fortiori there was no probable cause
to support the search pursuant to which the drug manufacturing instructions were found, the Court of Appeals explicitly foreclosed a First Amendment
defense not only to the search itself, but also to a later prosecution... |