SABLE COMMUNICATIONS OF CALIFORNIA, INC. v. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION et al.
Supreme Court Cases
492 U.S. 115 (1989)
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Whether a Georgia criminal statute prohibiting “opprobrious words or abusive language, tending to cause a breach of the peace” violates the First Amendment.
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Whether arresting someone for wearing a jacket that says “Fuck the Draft” under a California statute which prohibits “offensive conduct” violated the First Amendment.
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Whether the seizure of 37 photographs by customs agents under a federal law prohibiting importation of obscene material violated the First Amendment.
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Whether a federal statute allowing the postmaster general to censor obscene mailings lacked adequate safeguards to avoid inhibiting expression protected under the First Amendment.
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ROWAN, DBA AMERICAN BOOK SERVICE, et al. v. UNITED STATES POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT et al.
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Whether a statute under which an individual can require a mailer to stop all future mailings that the person "believes to be erotically arousing or sexually provocative" violates the mailer's rights of free speech and due process.
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Whether the First Amendment prohibits criminal sanction for private possession of material deemed legally obscene.
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Whether judge issuing warrant to seize allegedly obscene motion pictures acted using the proper constitutional safeguards when issuing such warrant.
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RABECK v. NEW YORK
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Whether a New York statute prohibiting the sale of "magazines which would appeal to the lust of persons under the age of eighteen years" is unconstitutionally vague and violates the First Amendment.
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Did the portion of New York Penal Law that made it unlawful to knowingly sell minors nude photos and magazines that contain such photos violate the 1st and 14th Amendments?
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I.M. AMUSEMENT CORP. v. OHIO.
Decided:
CHANCE v. CALIFORNIA
Decided:
POTOMAC NEWS CO. v. UNITED STATES
Decided:
CONNER v. CITY OF HAMMOND
Decided:
ROSENBLOOM v. VIRGINIA
Decided:
RATNER et al. v. CALIFORNIA
Decided:
AVANSINO et al. v. NEW YORK
Decided:
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Decided:
KENEY v. NEW YORK
Decided:
COBERT v. NEW YORK
Decided:
FRIEDMAN v. NEW YORK
Decided:
SCHACKMAN et al. v. CALIFORNIA
Decided:
SHEPERD et al. v. NEW YORK
Decided:
ADAY et al. v. UNITED STATES
Decided:
REDRUP v. NEW YORK
Decided:
Whether the conviction of a New York newsstand clerk for selling two "obscene" paperback books violated First Amendment free speech guarantees.
REDMOND et ux. v. UNITED STATES
Decided:
A BOOK NAMED 'JOHN CLELAND'S MEMOIRS OF A WOMAN OF PLEASURE' et al. v. ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MASSACHUSETTS
Decided:
Whether the book Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, commonly called Fanny Hill, is legally obscene.
MISHKIN v. NEW YORK
Decided:
Whether the conviction under New York law of a book distributor for possessing and publishing "obscene" books of sadism and masochism violated his freedom of speech.
GINZBURG et al. v. UNITED STATES
Decided:
Whether three publications that dealt openly with sexual matter were legally obscene under the Roth v. United States (1957) test and without First Amendment protection.
TRALINS v. GERSTEIN, STATE ATTORNEY
Decided:
JACOBELLIS v. OHIO
Decided:
Whether the conviction of a manager of a movie theater for "possessing and exhibiting an allegedly obscene film" violated the free speech guarantee of the First Amendment.
BANTAM BOOKS, INC., et al. v. SULLIVAN et al.
Decided:
Whether a state commission with broad discretion to define obscenity, and that allowed police enforcement of obscenity laws, was constitutional under the First Amendment.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE v. BUTTON, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF VIRGINIA, et al.
Decided:
Whether a Virginia barratry statute which banned the improper solicitation of any legal or professional business unconstitutionally burdened the First Amendment freedom of association rights of the petitioner and petitioners clients.
MANUAL ENTERPRISES, INC., et al. v. DAY, POSTMASTER GENERAL
Decided:
Whether an injunction against the mailing of several "obscene" magazines featuring photos of nude male models violated the First Amendment.
SMITH v. CALIFORNIA
Decided:
Whether a Los Angeles city ordinance punishing the sales of books later determined to be obscene even if the bookseller did not know the contents of the book violated due process and free speech guarantees.
KINGSLEY INTERNATIONAL PICTURES CORP. v. REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
Decided:
Whether a New York law denying licenses to show movies which "alluringly portrays adultery as proper behavior" is viewpont discrimination and violates the First Amendment.
ROTH v. UNITED STATES
Decided:
"The dispositive question is whether obscenity is utterance within the area of protected speech and press."
KINGSLEY BOOKS, INC., et al. v. BROWN, CORPORATION COUNSEL
Decided:
Whether an injunction on sale of obscene booklets and destruction of such booklets amounted to prior restraint by the State, violating the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
BUTLER v. MICHIGAN
Decided:
Whether a Michigan statute punishing sales of books "tending to the corruption of the morals of youth" is so vague as to violate the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause.
SUPERIOR FILMS, INC. v. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION OF OHIO, DIVISION OF FILM CENSORSHIP, HISSONG, SUPERINTENDENT
Decided:
Whether an Ohio statute forbidding the commercial showing of any motion picture film without a license constitutes a prior restraint and is unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ET AL. v. POLLAK ET AL.
Decided:
Whether the operation of a radio service broadcasting music, commercials and announcements on public buses violates the freedoms of speech and privacy guaranteed to citizens by the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution.
JOSEPH BURSTYN, INC. v. WILSON, COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION OF NEW YORK, et al.
Decided:
Whether a New York Education Law that prohibited the commercial showing of any motion picture film without a license, and authorized denial of a license on a censors conclusion that a film was "sacrilegious," violated the First Amendment. Could the New York Board of Regents ban Roberto Rossellinis The Miracle under regulations barring "sacrilegious" films?
KUNZ v. NEW YORK
Decided:
Whether a city ordinance which prescribes no appropriate standard for administrative action and gives an administrative official discretionary power to control in advance the right of citizens to speak on religious matters on the city streets is invalid under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
UNITED STATES v. ALPERS
Decided:
WINTERS v. NEW YORK
Decided:
Whether a New York statute prohibiting publications of violent materials "principally made up of criminal news, police reports, or accounts of criminal deeds, or pictures, or stories of deeds of bloodshed, lust or crime," is overly vague and violates the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment.
FOX v. STATE OF WASHINGTON
Decided:
MUTUAL FILM CORPORATION v. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION OF OHIO
Decided:
Do the constitutional protections of freedom of expression, including those of the Ohio Constitution, extend to motion pictures?