Case Categories: Obscenity and Pornography

• Alberts v. California (1957)

  Alberts v. California (1957) marks the first time the Supreme Court specifically ruled that obscenity does not fall under the protection of the First Amendment...

• Alexander v. United States (1993)

  Alexander v. United States (1993) rejected claims that the First Amendment rights of a petitioner convicted under obscenity and racketeering laws had been...

• American Booksellers Association v. Hudnut (7th Cir.) (1985)

  In American Booksellers Association v. Hudnut (1985), the 7th Circuit Court said an Indianapolis anti-pornography ordinance violated the First Amendment...

• Arcara v. Cloud Books, Inc. (1986)

  Arcara v. Cloud Books, Inc. (1986) upheld the application of a public health law to close an adult bookstore. The store contended the closure violated the First...

• Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union (2002, 2004)

  Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union (2004) struck down a law designed to protect children from Internet pornography on grounds it violated the First...

• Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002)

  Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002) struck down a ban virtual child pornography, which, being neither obscene nor child pornography, was protected by the...

• Bantam Books, Inc. v. Sullivan (1963)

  Bantam Books, Inc. v. Sullivan (1963) ruled that states must provide adequate procedural safeguards when establishing a mechanism to declare books obscene...

• Blount v. Rizzi (1971)

  In Blount v. Rizzi (1971) nullified provisions allowing the postmaster general to refuse to mail obscene matter. The First Amendment requires safeguards for...

• Brockett v. Spokane Arcades, Inc. (1985)

  Brockett v. Spokane Arcades, Inc. (1985) upheld a law concerning lewd films and gave a First Amendment clarification of the 'prurient interest' prong of the...

• Butler v. Michigan (1957)

  Butler v. Michigan (1957) struck down a law against obscene materials that could be harmful to youths. The law violated the First Amendment by being overbroad...

• Byrne v. Karalexis (1969, 1971)

  Byrne v. Karalexis (1969) stayed an injunction against prosecutions of theater owners for showing an obscene movie. Dissenters said the movie was protected by...

• Cain v. Kentucky (1970)

  Cain v. Kentucky (1970) reversed a state court opinion which had said the movie I, A Woman was obscene. Obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment...

• Commonwealth v. Sharpless (Pa) (1815)

  Commonwealth v. Sharpless (1815) led to the first obscenity prosecution in the United States. This case took place before First Amendment rights were extended...

• Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville (1975)

  Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville (1975) held that under the First Amendment government may not censor expression simply because it offends some people...

• Fort Wayne Books, Inc. v. Indiana (1989)

  Fort Wayne Books, Inc. v. Indiana (1989) said a state provision allowing pretrial seizure of allegedly obscene material imposed a prior restraint, violating the...

• Ginsberg v. New York (1968)

  In Ginsberg v. New York, the Supreme Court upheld a harmful to minors law, affirming the illegality of selling minors expressions and depictions of nudity and...

• Ginzburg v. United States (1966)

  In Ginzburg v. United States, the Court upheld the conviction of a publisher who had violated a federal statute by mailing advertising for obscene publications...

• Grimm v. United States (1895)

  In Grimm v. United States, the Supreme Court upheld on a conviction for using the mail to convey information about where to purchase pornographic pictures...

• Grove Press v. Gerstein (1964)

  Grove Press v. Gerstein rejected a ban of Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer, one of the most censored books in history, by saying it had some redeeming literary...

• Grove Press v. Maryland State Board of Censors (1971)

  Grove Press v. Maryland State Board of Censors let stand an appeals court decision banning the Swedish film I Am Curious (Yellow) on the grounds of obscenity...

• Hamling v. United States (1974)

  Hamling v. United States (1974) upheld convictions for mailing obscene advertising. A dissenting justice said the conviction violated the First Amendment...

• Heller v. New York (1973)

  Heller v. New York (1973) remanded an obscenity conviction after it had set new standards for determining which materials were obscene and unprotected by the...

• Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964)

  In Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964) the Court overturned on First Amendment grounds the conviction of a movie theater manager prosecuted for showing a film deemed to...

• Jenkins v. Georgia (1974)

  In Jenkins v. Georgia (1974), the Court overturned the conviction of a theater manager who had been prosecuted for showing a film deemed obscene by local and...

• Kaplan v. California (1973)

  Kaplan v. California, 413 U.S. 115 (1973) affirmed that a book, even without illustrations, can be obscene and thus unprotected by the First Amendment...

• Kingsley Books, Inc. v. Brown (1957)

  In Kingsley Books, Inc. v. Brown (1957), the Court upheld a state statute that allowed for the destruction of obscene materials after an expedited hearing...

• Lee Art Theatre v. Virginia (1968)

  Lee Art Theatre v. Virginia (1968) ruling that a warrant to seize obscene film based on a police officer’s personal observations violated the First Amendment...

• Lo-Ji Sales, Inc. v. New York (1979)

  Lo-Ji Sales, Inc. v. New York (1979) overturned an obscenity conviction of an adult business after saying that the search and seizure violated the First...

• Luke Records v. Navarro (11th Cir.) (1992)

  Luke Records v. Navarro (11th Cir. 1992) said the rap album As Nasty As They Wanna Be by 2 Live Crew was not obscene and therefore was protected by the First...

• Manual Enterprises v. Day (1962)

  In Manual Enterprises v. Day (1962) the Supreme Court held that three physique magazines featuring nudity were not obscene and could not be barred from the...

• Marcus v. Search Warrant (1961)

  In Marcus v. Search Warrant (1961), the Court found that the seizure of material considered obscene violated the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment...

• Marks v. United States (1977)

  Marks v. United States (1977) found that the Court violated due process by applying the obscenity standards of Miller v. California rather than those of Memoirs...

• Massachusetts v. Oakes (1989)

  Massachusetts v. Oakes (1989) involved a potentially overbroad state law that criminalized photographing a child younger than age 18 years in a state of nudity...

• McKinney v. Alabama (1976)

  McKinney v. Alabama (1976) found that the defendant’s First Amendment right had been violated because he was not allowed to contest the obscenity of the...

• Memoirs v. Massachusetts (1966)

  In Memoirs v. Massachusetts (1966), the Supreme Court revisited its obscenity test that an obscene work must be “utterly without redeeming social value...

• Miller v. California (1973)

  In Miller v. California (1973), the Supreme Court established the test used to determine whether expressive materials cross the line into unprotected obscenity...

• Mishkin v. New York (1966)

  Mishkin v. New York (1966) ruled that adult materials pandering to a deviant sexual group rather than the community at large are not protected by the First...

• New York v. Ferber (1982)

  New York v. Ferber (1982) is the foundational decision in which the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment does not protect child pornography...

• New York v. P.J. Video, Inc. (1986)

  New York v. P.J. Video, Inc. (1986) clarified that the First Amendment does not require a higher standard of probable cause when officials seize books or films...

• One, Inc. v. Olesen (9th Cir.) (1957)

  One, Inc. v. Olesen (9th Cir. 1957) ruled that a homosexual magazine was obscene and not constitutionally protected under the First Amendment rights of free...

• Osborne v. Ohio (1990)

  Osborne v. Ohio (1990) established that the First Amendment right to free speech did not forbid states from enforcing laws against private possession of child...

• Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton (1973)

  The Supreme Court ruled in Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton (1973) that there is no First Amendment right to show obscene films, even to consenting adults...

• Pinkus v. United States (1978)

  Pinkus v. United States (1978) centered on jury instructions in an obscenity case relating to contemporary community standards. The instructions violated due...

• Pope v. Illinois (1987)

  Pope v. Illinois (1987) confirmed that the third prong of the Miller obscenity test warrants the reasonable person test and should not be based on contemporary...

• Rabeck v. New York (1968)

  Rabeck v. New York (1968) dealt with First Amendment protection of explicit material and overturned the obscenity conviction of a man charged with selling "...

• Redrup v. New York (1967)

  Redrup v. New York (1967) outlined three guideposts for state obscenity laws to overcome First Amendment concerns, yet the Court could not unite on an obscenity...

• Roaden v. Kentucky (1973)

  In Roaden v. Kentucky (1973), the Supreme Court ruled that seizing an obscene film without a warrant constituted impermissible prior restraint under the First...

• Rosen v. United States (1896)

  Rosen v. United States (1896) upheld an obscenity conviction by relying on the Hicklin test, which would eventually be discarded in light of First Amendment...

• Roth v. United States (1957)

  Roth v. United States (1957) resulted in a new test to determine what could be prosecuted under obscenity laws and what was protected under the First Amendment...

• Smith v. California (1959)

  Smith v. California (1959) overturned a California law that criminalized the sale of obscene books, saying it was too vague and infringed upon First Amendment...

• Smith v. United States (1977)

  Smith v. United States (1977) upheld a jury decision in an obscenity case, saying that the jury can determine community standards in evaluating whether...

• Southeastern Promotions, Ltd. v. Conrad (1975)

  Southeastern Promotions v. Conrad (1975) said a city's denial of theater space for a performance of the controversial musical Hair violated the First Amendment...

• Stanley v. Georgia (1969)

  Stanley v. Georgia (1969) the Supreme Court said that criminalizing the mere possession of obscenity violated the First Amendment right to receive information...

• Swearingen v. United States (1896)

  The First Amendment case Swearingen v. United States (1896) overturned the conviction of a newspaper publisher who mailed a newspaper with an allegedly obscene...

• United States v. American Library Association (2003)

  US v. American Library Association (2003) struck down a First Amendment challenge against a law restricting funding to libraries that did not install Internet...

• United States v. Orito (1973)

  Although the First Amendment protects the right of an individual to possess pornography inside his home, the right does not extend to transporting material, the...

• United States v. Reidel (1971)

  The Supreme Court in 1971 affirmed a federal law forbidding the distribution of obscene material through the mail despite an earlier ruling that held a person...

• United States v. Stevens (2010)

  In 2010, the Supreme Court overturned a federal law that made it a crime to create, sell or distribute images depicting animal cruelty for commercial purposes....

• United States v. Thirty-seven Photographs (1971)

  United States v. 37 Photographs (1971) said a law allowing custom officials to seize obscene materials did not provide procedural safeguards against First...

• United States v. Twelve 200-Ft. Reels of Film (1973)

  US v. Twelve 200-Ft. Reels of Film (1973) upheld a statute banning importation of obscene materials for personal use, finding such action was not protected by...

• United States v. Williams (2008)

  The Supreme Court in 2008 upheld a provision of a federal child pornography law that makes it a crimes to advertise, promote or present child pornography even...

• Virginia v. American Booksellers Association (1988)

  Virginia v. American Booksellers Association remanded two questions about a state’s “harmful to juveniles” statute regulating the commercial display of...

• Winters v. New York (1948)

  Winters v. New York (1948) said a state obscenity law that prohibited the distribution of magazines made up primarily of crime news violated the First Amendment...