Stanley v. Georgia

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Stanley v. Georgia
S.E.2d 309 (1968); probable jurisdiction noted, 393 U.S.
819 (1968).
Holding
The First Amendment, as applied to the States under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, prohibits making mere private possession of obscene material a crime. Supreme Court of Georgia reversed.
Court membership
Chief Justice
Earl Warren
Associate Justices
Case opinions
MajorityMarshall, joined by Warren, Black, Douglas, Harlan, Fortas
ConcurrenceBlack
ConcurrenceStewart (in result), joined by Brennan, White
Laws applied
U.S. Const. Amend. I, XIV

Stanley v. Georgia, 394 U.S. 557 (1969), was a landmark decision of the

obscene materials.[1]

The home of Robert Eli Stanley, a suspected

pornographic material from a desk drawer in an upstairs bedroom, and later charged Stanley with the possession of obscene materials, a crime under Georgia law. The conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court of Georgia
.

In the Supreme Court of the United States, Justice

William J. Brennan, and Byron White contributed a joint concurring opinion with a separate opinion having to do with the Fourth Amendment search and seizure provision. Justice Hugo Black
also concurred expressing the view that all obscenity laws were unconstitutional.

The case also established an implied right to pornography, but not an absolute right. In Osborne v. Ohio (1990), the Supreme Court upheld a law which criminalized the possession of child pornography.

History

Prior to the Stanley case, the prevailing precedent was that of

statutory and common law of the country.[citation needed
] Since the ruling in Roth in 1957, many cases in state and federal courts were determined using the case as primary justification.

Facts

Robert Eli Stanley a resident from Atlanta, Georgia was a suspected bookmaker.[5][6] A warrant was granted to search his home. The searching officials did not find evidence of bookmaking, but instead discovered three reels of eight-millimeter film. They watched the films using a projector that they found in Stanley's home, and upon discovering that the films were pornographic, they seized the films as evidence and arrested Robert Stanley for possession of obscene matter, which was illegal by Georgia statute. Stanley was tried and convicted of possesion of obsecene material. Stanley appealed to the Supreme Court of Georgia, in which the court affirmed the decison of the lower court.[7][8][9]

Rulling

The majority opinion was written by Justice Thurgood Marshall, joined by Chief Justice Warren, Justice Douglas, Justice Harlan, and Justice Fortas. The court announced their decision and It was a unanimous 9–0 decision. The court reversed the decision of Supreme Court of Georgia and held that "the mere private possesion of the obsene matter cannot be constitutionally be made a crime".[8][10]

Although the defendant presented multiple arguments in his defense, the Court was able to reverse Georgia's decision using just one of them. A distinction was drawn by the Court between public display and private possession of obscenity. Neither Roth nor any other case at the time set a precedent for private possession of obscenity. The Court thus decided to set precedent on this issue in this case. Roth dealt with the mailing and advertising of obscenity. A companion case,

Alberts v. California, involved the advertising and sale of obscene materials. All earlier cases were decided with the negative externality
of obscenity in mind. They reasoned that members of the public, especially impressionable children, should have a valid expectation to not be inadvertently exposed to obscenity. Public display of obscenity was deemed an "important interest" in Roth. Private possession was not as interesting in the eyes of the Court.

Justice Marshall, wrote in his concurring opinion that "If the first amendment means enything...it means that a State has no business telling a man, sitting in his own house, what books he may read, what films he may watch. Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds."[11]

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects freedom of speech. In Winters v. New York, a notion was established that freedom of speech extended to what an individual possesses and chooses to read. "The Constitution protects the right to receive information and ideas, regardless of their social worth".[6] For this reason, the Court dismissed Georgia's argument that drew a line between communication of ideas and "mere entertainment". Marshall noted that such a line could not be objectively drawn.

The Court argued that the Georgia decision encroached on Stanley's pursuit of happiness. Stanley should have a right to define his own spiritual nature. An individual's First Amendment rights must always be protected, unless there is cause to believe that a certain type of expression may cause significant public harm.[12]

The Court dismissed Georgia in claiming that possession of obscenity necessarily led to "deviant sexual behavior" and "crimes of sexual violence",[6] as there was little empirical evidence supporting the claim. The Court reasoned that primary crime deterrents should be education and punitive measures for violation of the law. Punishment for an act solely as a preventative measure to ensure that another law would not be violated was discouraged. Georgia also claimed that the possession of obscenity was indistinguishable from its distribution. They claimed that it would be impossible to effectively control distribution if possession was permissible. The Court did not agree with the validity of this claim, and further asserted that an individual's First Amendment rights were more important in this case.

By the First Amendment, as applied to the states by the Fourteenth, private possession of obscenity was decided to be legal. The Court noted that this does not affect or change Roth or other cases that deal with public obscenity.

The Warren Court fashioned the right of privacy that is not explicitly said by the constitution. The court established a comprehensive right of the citizens to be let alone by the government.[13]

Stewart Concurrence

Justice Potter Stewart wrote a concurring opinion which Justice William J. Brennan and Justice Byron White joined.

"There was also another issue with the Constitutionality of the case, which was not addressed in the majority decision. The films were seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment as applied to the states by the Fourteenth. The Fourth Amendment prohibits the issuance of general warrants to search a person's home. A warrant can only be issued by a judge when there is probable cause. The particular items to be found must be enumerated on the warrant. The search warrant issued was for the seizure of materials in Stanley's home relating to bookmaking. There was no mention of obscene films on the warrant, and so the seizure of the films as evidence was unconstitutional.

General searches and seizures were made unconstitutional because of the prevailing policy during colonial rule of colonial courts issuing writs of assistance directing law enforcement officers to search all of a person's belongings to find anything that is incriminating.

The films and their content were not in "plain view". The record showed that the officers had to play the films on a projector to determine that they violated the Georgia obscenity statute. So the films are not admissible as evidence under the plain view doctrine, which requires that the character of the object is "immediately apparent".[14]

A search warrant cannot be used as a "ticket" to enter private property.[15] Once inside, an officer cannot assume the privileges of a general warrant.

For these reasons, the films are inadmissible as evidence. Stanley made a motion to exercise this Fourth Amendment right during his trial, and the motion was unconstitutionally denied. The Georgia Supreme Court also overlooked this Constitutional violation. The conviction must be reversed."

Impact

Stanley v. Georgia limited the power of the government to police the private possession of obscenity. The majority opinion defended the free and unimpeded acquisition of facts and knowledge, regardless of their apparent social value.[6] The Court reasoned that unless the pornography is presented in a way that creates a negative externality on others, especially minors, no individual can be stopped from owning and viewing pornography in private.[16]

Subsequent cases

  • United States v. Thirty-seven Photographs (1971) – Upheld that importation of pornography is illegal
  • United States v. Reidel (1971) – Upheld a postal regulation barring the distribution of pornography through the mail
  • Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton (1973) – Privacy required in Stanley decision is not sufficient for a commercial movie theater
  • Osborne v. Ohio (1990) – The Stanley case distinguished, upheld law criminalizing mere possession of child pornography
  • Reno v. ACLU
    (1997) – Upheld legality of distribution of pornography on the Internet
  • Ashcroft v. ACLU
    (2002) – Protected use of "community standards" to identify material unsuitable for minors

See also

Citations

  1. .
  2. ^ Eads, Arthur C. (1969). "Stanley v. Georgia:A Private Look at Obscenity". Baylor Law Review. 21: 503 – via Google Scholar.
  3. ^ Bender 1971, p. 28.
  4. ^ Roth v. United States
  5. ^ Kingman Daily Miner. Kingman Daily Miner.
  6. ^ a b c d Stanley v. Georgia
  7. – via Google Scholar.
  8. ^ a b United States Congress and Senate, Committee on the Judiciary (1971). Reform of the Federal Criminal Laws: Hearings, Ninety-second Congress, First Session. United States: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 1491.
  9. ^ Snowden 1969, pp. 660–661.
  10. .
  11. .
  12. .
  13. .
  14. ^ Horton v. California.
  15. ^ Stanley v. Georgia, Stewart concurrence
  16. ^ Panichas & Gruen 1996, p. 156.

Further Reading

External links