STANLEY v. GEORGIA
No. 293
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued January 14-15, 1969. Decided April 7, 1969.
394 U.S. 557
J. Robert Sparks argued the cause for appellee. With him on the brief was Lewis R. Slaton.
MR. JUSTICE MARSHALL delivered the opinion of the Court.
An investigation of appellant‘s alleged bookmaking activities led to the issuance of a search warrant for appellant‘s home. Under authority of this warrant, federal and state agents secured entrance. They found very little evidence of bookmaking activity, but while looking through a desk drawer in an upstairs bedroom, one of the federal agents, accompanied by a state officer, found three reels of eight-millimeter film. Using a projector and screen found in an upstairs living room, they viewed the films. The state officer concluded that they were obscene and seized them. Since a further examination of the bedroom indicated that appellant occupied it, he was charged with possession of obscene matter and placed under arrest. He was later indicted for knowingly hav[ing] possession of . . . obscene matter in violation of Georgia law.1 Appel-
Appellant raises several challenges to the validity of his conviction.2 We find it necessary to consider only one. Appellant argues here, and argued below, that the Georgia obscenity statute, insofar as it punishes mere private possession of obscene matter, violates the First Amendment, as made aрplicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment. For reasons set forth below, we agree that the mere private possession of obscene matter cannot constitutionally be made a crime.
The court below saw no valid constitutional objection to the Georgia statute, even though it extends further than the typical statute forbidding commercial sales of obscene material. It held that [i]t is not essential to an indictment charging one with possession of obscene matter that it be alleged that such possession was with intent to sell, expose or circulate the same. Stanley v. State, supra, at 261, 161 S. E. 2d, at 311. The State and appellant both agree that the question here before us is whether a statute imposing criminal sanctions upon the mere [knowing] possession of obscene matter is constitutional. In this context, Georgia con-
It is true that Roth does declare, seemingly without qualification, that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment. That statement has been repeated in various forms in subsequent cases. See, e. g., Smith v. California, 361 U. S. 147, 152 (1959); Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U. S. 184, 186-187 (1964) (opinion of BRENNAN, J.); Ginsberg v. New York, supra, at 635. However, neither Roth nor any subsequent decision of this Court dealt with the precise problem involved in the present case. Roth was convicted of mailing obscene circulars and advertising, and an obscene book, in violation of a federal obscenity statute.4 The defendant in a companion case, Alberts v. California, 354 U. S. 476 (1957), was convicted of lewdly keeping for sale obscene and indecent books, and [of] writing, composing and publishing an obscеne advertisement of them . . . . Id., at 481. None of the statements cited by the Court in
It is now well established that the Constitution protеcts the right to receive information and ideas. This freedom [of speech and press] . . . necessarily protects the right to receive . . . . Martin v. City of Struthers, 319 U. S. 141, 143 (1943); see Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U. S. 479, 482 (1965); Lamont v. Postmaster General, 381 U. S. 301, 307-308 (1965) (BRENNAN, J., concurring); cf. Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U. S. 510 (1925). This right to receive information and ideas, regardless of their social worth, see Winters v. New York, 333 U. S. 507, 510 (1948), is fundamental to our free society. Moreover, in the context of this case—a prosecution for mere possession of printed or filmed matter in the privacy of a person‘s own home—that right takes on an added dimension. For also fundamental is the right tо be free, except in very limited circumstances, from unwanted governmental intrusions into one‘s privacy.
The makers of our Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit of happiness. They recognized the significance of man‘s spiritual nature, of his feelings and of his intellect. They knew that only a part of the pain, pleasure and satisfactions of life are to be found in material things. They sought to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions аnd their sensations. They conferred, as against the Government, the right to be let alone—the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized man. Olmstead v. United States, 277 U. S. 438, 478 (1928) (Brandeis, J., dissenting).
See Griswold v. Connecticut, supra; cf. NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U. S. 449, 462 (1958).
And yet, in the face of these traditional notions of individual liberty, Georgia asserts the right to protect the individual‘s mind from the effects of obscenity. We are not certain that this argument amounts to anything more than the assеrtion that the State has the right to control the moral content of a person‘s thoughts.8 To
Perhaps recognizing this, Georgia asserts that exposure to obscene materials may lead to deviant sexual behavior or crimes of sexual violence. There appears to be little empirical basis for that assertion.9 But more important, if the State is only concerned about printed or filmed materials inducing antisocial conduct, we believe that in the context of private consumption of ideas and information we should adhere to the viеw that [a]mong free men, the deterrents ordinarily to be
It is true that in Roth this Court rejected the necessity of proving that exposure to obscene material would create a clear and present danger of antisocial conduct or would probably induce its recipients to such conduct. 354 U. S., at 486-487. But that case dealt with public distribution of obscene materials and such distribution is subject to different objections. For example, there is always the danger that obscene material might fall into the hands of children, see Ginsberg v. New York, supra, or that it might intrude upon the sensibilities or privacy of the general public.10 See Redrup v. New York, 386 U. S. 767, 769 (1967). No such dangers are present in this case.
Finally, we are faced with the argument that prohibition of possession of obscene materials is a necessary incident to statutory schemes prohibiting distribution. That argument is based on alleged difficulties of proving an intent to distribute or in producing evidence of actual distribution. We are not convinced that such difficulties
We hold that the First and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit making mere private possession of obscene material a crime.11 Roth and the cases following that decision are not impaired by today‘s holding. As we have said, the States retain broad power to regulate obscenity; that power simply dоes not extend to mere possession by the individual in the privacy of his own home. Accordingly, the judgment of the court below is reversed and the case is remanded for proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
MR. JUSTICE BLACK, concurring.
I agree with the Court that the mere possession of reading matter or movie films, whether labeled obscene or not, cannot be made a crime by a State without vio-
MR. JUSTICE STEWART, with whom MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN and MR. JUSTICE WHITE join, concurring in the result.
Before the commencement of the trial in this case, the appellant filed a motion to suppress the films as evidence upon the ground that they had been seized in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. The motion was denied, and the films were admitted in evidence at the trial. In affirming the appellant‘s conviction, the Georgia Supreme Court specifically determined that thе films had been lawfully seized. The appellant correctly contends that this determination was clearly wrong under established principles of constitutional law. But the Court today disregards this preliminary issue in its hurry to move on to newer constitutional frontiers. I cannot so readily overlook the serious inroads upon Fourth Amendment guarantees countenanced in this case by the Georgia courts.
The Fourth Amendment provides that no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. The purpose of these clear and precise words was to guarantee to the people of this Nation that they should forever be secure from the general searches and unrestrained seizures that had been a hated hallmark of colonial rule under the notorious writs of assistance of the British Crown. See Stanford v. Texas, 379 U. S. 476, 481. This most basic of Fourth Amendment guarantees was frus-
The state and federal officers gained admission to the appellant‘s house under the authority of a search warrant issued by a United States Commissioner. The warrant described the place to be searched with particularity.1 With like particularity, it desсribed the things to be seized—equipment, records, and other material used in or derived from an illegal wagering business.2 And the warrant was issued only after the Commissioner had been apprised of more than adequate probable cause to issue it.3
There can be no doubt, therefore, that the agents were lawfully present in the appellant‘s house, lawfully authorized to search for any and all of the items specified in the warrant, and lawfully empowered to seize any such
The controlling constitutional principle was stated in two sentences by this Court more than 40 years ago:
The requirement that warrants shall particularly describe the things to be seized makеs general searches under them impossible and prevents the seizure of one thing under a warrant describing another. As to what is to be taken, nothing is left to the discretion of the officer executing the warrant. Marron v. United States, 275 U. S. 192, 196.
This is not a case where agents in the course of a lawful search came upon contraband, criminal activity, or criminal evidence5 in plain view. For the record makes clear that the contents of the films could not be determined by mere inspection. And this is not a case that presents any questions as to the permissible scope of a search made incident to a lawful arrest. For the appellant had not been arrested when the agents found the films. After finding them, the agents spent some 50 minutes exhibiting them by means of the appellant‘s projector in another upstairs room. Only then did the agents return downstairs and arrest the appellant.
Even in the much-criticized case of United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U. S. 56, the Court emphasized that ex-
Because the films were seized in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, they were inadmissible in еvidence at the appellant‘s trial. Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U. S. 643. Accordingly, the judgment of conviction must be reversed.
