Kingsley Books v. Brown/Dissent Warren

by Earl Warren

United States Supreme Court

354 U.S. 436

Kingsley Books  v.  Brown

 Argued: April 22, 1957. --- Decided: June 24, 1957

Mr. Chief Justice WARREN, dissenting.

My views on the right of a State to protect its people against the purveyance of obscenity were expressed in Roth v. United States (Alberts v. State of California), 354 U.S. 476, 77 S.Ct. 1304. Here we have an entirely different situation.

This is not a criminal obscenity case. Nor is it a case ordering the destruction of materials disseminated by a person who has been convicted of an offense for doing so, as would be authorized under provisions in the laws of New York and other States. It is a case wherein the New York police, under a different state statute, located books which, in their opinion, were unfit for public use because of obscenity and then obtained a court order for their condemnation and destruction.

The majority opinion sanctions this proceeding. I would not. Unlike the criminal cases decided today, this New York law places the book on trial. There is totally lacking any standard in the statute for judging the book in context. The personal element basic to the criminal laws is entirely absent. In my judgment, the same object may have wholly different impact depending upon the setting in which it is placed. Under this statute, the setting is irrelevant.

It is the manner of use that should determine obscenity. It is the conduct of the individual that should be judged, not the quality of art or literature. To do otherwise is to impose a prior restraint and hence to violate the Constitution. Certainly in the absence of a prior judicial determination of illegal use, books, pictures and other objects of expression should not be destroyed. It savors too much of book burning.

I would reverse.

Notes