Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/405/313/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 14:12:48+00:00

Document:
Petitioner was convicted of violating Washington's obscenity statute for showing a sexually frank motion picture at a drive-in theater. In affirming his conviction, the Washington Supreme Court did not hold that the film was obscene under the standards of Roth v. United States, 354 U. S. 476, and Memoirs v. Massachusetts, 383 U. S. 413, but that it was obscene in "the context of its exhibition" at a drive-in. The statute proscribing the knowing display of "obscene" films did not mention the location of the exhibition as an element of the offense.
sexually frank scenes, but no instances of sexual consummation are explicitly portrayed. After viewing the film from outside the theater fence on two successive evenings, a police officer obtained a warrant and arrested petitioner for violating Washington's obscenity statute. Wash.Rev.Code § 9.68.010. Petitioner was later convicted and, on appeal, the Supreme Court of Washington affirmed. 79 Wash.2d 254, 484 P.2d 917 (1971). We granted certiorari. 404 U.S. 909. We reverse petitioner's conviction.
"Every person who -- "
"(1) Having knowledge of the contents thereof shall exhibit, sell, distribute, display for sale or distribution, or having knowledge of the contents thereof shall have in his possession with the intent to sell or distribute any book, magazine, pamphlet, comic book, newspaper, writing, photograph, motion picture film, phonograph record, tape or wire recording, picture, drawing, figure, image, or any object or thing which is obscene; or"
"(2) Having knowledge of the contents thereof shall cause to be performed or exhibited, or shall engage in the performance or exhibition of any show, act, play, dance or motion picture which is obscene;"
"Shall be guilty of a gross misdemeanor."
the movie advocated ideas or was of artistic or literary value,"
"were to apply the strict rules of Roth, the film 'Carmen Baby' probably would pass the definitional obscenity test if the viewing audience consisted only of consenting adults."
79 Wash.2d at 263, 484 P.2d at 922. Respondent read the opinion of the Supreme Court of Washington more narrowly, but nonetheless implied that, because the film had "redeeming social value," it was not, by itself, "obscene" under the Roth standard. The Supreme Court of Washington nonetheless upheld the conviction, reasoning that in "the context of its exhibition," Carmen Baby was obscene. Ibid.
To avoid the constitutional vice of vagueness, it is necessary, at a minimum, that a statute give fair notice that certain conduct is proscribed. The statute under which petitioner was prosecuted, however, made no mention that the "context" or location of the exhibition was an element of the offense somehow modifying the word "obscene." Petitioner's conviction was thus affirmed under a statute with a meaning quite different from the one he was charged with violating.
"It is as much a violation of due process to send an accused to prison following conviction of a charge on which he was never tried as it would be to convict him upon a charge that was never made."
Cole v. Arkansas, 333 U. S. 196, 333 U. S. 201. Petitioner's conviction cannot, therefore, be allowed to stand. Gregory v. City of Chicago, 394 U. S. 111; Garner v. Louisiana, 368 U. S. 157; Cole v. Arkansas, supra.
give him fair notice that criminal liability is dependent upon the place where the film is shown.
"Any attempt to support this conviction on the ground that the statute seeks to preserve an appropriately decorous atmosphere in the courthouse where Cohen was arrested must fail in the absence of any language in the statute that would have put appellant on notice that certain kinds of otherwise permissible speech or conduct would nevertheless, under California law, not be tolerated in certain places. . . . No fair reading of the phrase 'offensive conduct' can be said sufficiently to inform the ordinary person that distinctions between certain locations are thereby created."
We need not decide the broad constitutional questions tendered to us by the parties. We hold simply that a State may not criminally punish the exhibition at a drive-in theater of a motion picture where the statute used to support the conviction has not given fair notice that the location of the exhibition was a vital element of the offense.
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE BURGER, with whom MR. JUSTICE REHNQUIST joins, concurring.
Public displays of explicit materials such as are described in this record are not significantly different from any noxious public nuisance traditionally within the power of the States to regulate and prohibit, and, in my view, involve no significant countervailing First Amendment considerations. [Footnote 2] That this record shows an offensive nuisance that could properly be prohibited, I have no doubt, but the state statute and charge did not give the notice constitutionally required.
For examples of recent statutes regulating public displays, see Ariz.Rev.Stat.Ann. § 13-537 (Supp. 1971-1972); N.Y.Penal Law §§ 245.10-245.11 (Supp. 1971-1972).
Under such circumstances, where the very method of display may thrust isolated scenes on the public, the Roth v. United States, 354 U. S. 476, 354 U. S. 489 (1957), requirement that the materials be "taken as a whole" has little relevance. For me, the First Amendment must be treated in this context as it would in a libel action: if there is some libel in a book, article, or speech, we do not average the tone and tenor of the whole; the libelous part is not protected.

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