Silvert wouldn’t let him; they refused entry to FDA agents who had the job of carrying out
the injunction. The FDA wanted to eliminate the “worthless” accumulators. (Reich shot a
stern look at Maguire in response to the pejorative adjective.)
Reich and Silvert were asked to stand and plead “guilty” or “not guilty.” Reich start-
ed to say a few words at this point, but was told by Fisher that his statement should be made
after the plea. Reich had an aversion to the legalistic form of the plea, as he was to explain
later. He finally said “not guilty,” as did Silvert. Then Reich asked to say a few words. The
judge nodded.
Reich went to the front of the courtroom and, standing, spoke briefly but forceful-
ly. He began by explaining that it was impossible factually to plead either guilty or not guilty.
What the injunction demanded was impossible to fulfill. He could not get the accumulators
back even if he asked for them. He could not get the literature back—it was in the hands of
publishers all over the world. The accumulators, the books, his discoveries were on their way,
far into the world, and it was impossible to fulfill an injunction that ordered him to do any-
thing about it.
Reich also explained why he had not appeared in court originally. Among his rea-
sons was that basic science must remain outside the jurisdiction of the courts, and it was for
that principle that he was fighting.
At one point Reich turned directly to Maguire and said: “You are not honest!”
Maguire had cited one letter from Reich to Baker, a letter published in a limited edition of
Conspiracy^2. He asked Maguire why he had not cited other material, such as the Brady arti-
cle, from the same volume. He also accused him of deliberately and maliciously using as a
courtroom exhibit an old, dilapidated accumulator rather than a new one, in order to make
Reich look like a fraud.
Reich’s voice shook with emotion when he confronted Maguire directly. As his
emotions mounted, Fisher anxiously got up in order to warn Reich not to go too far.
However, the judge, who was kindly to Reich throughout, gently beckoned him and Reich
quickly restrained himself.He told the judge that he had gone too far and would retract what
he had said.Reich went on to tell Maguire that he no longer thought he was the main force
behind the injunction and that the FDA was behaving better these days, they were no longer
badgering patients.
Reich became very strong and vehement again when, directing his words to
Maguire,he said that no matter what they did to him—jail, chains, fine—he would never
permit Maguire to say anything about orgone energy and the accumulator. Matters of sci-
ence were not to be decided in court; the court could not say whether the universe was
empty or full oforgone energy. When thathappened,there was no longer any freedom in
the United States—this was the way it was behind the Iron Curtain. Reich spoke movingly
of Giordano Bruno’s fate, Bruno who had been hunted down for seven years by a man
named Mocenigo and who finally died at the hands of the Inquisition. Centuries later, a
Pope apologized at Bruno’s grave. Amid such courageous sentences Reich also spoke non-
sense, with references to his support in high government circles.
29 : Background to the Trial for Contempt of Injunction: 1955-1956 407