Court Opinion

ID: 9425415
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:14:38.536334+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:55.409394
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Brennan,
with whom Mr. Justice Stewart and Mr. Justice Marshall join, dissenting.
We granted certiorari to consider the holding of the Court of Appeals of New York that the Constitution does not require an adversary hearing on obscenity prior to a judge's issuance of warrants for the seizure of a *495film and for the arrest of the film’s exhibitor. 29 N. Y. 2d 319, 277 N. E. 2d 651 (1971). The statute under which the prosecution was brought* is, in my view, unconstitutionally overbroad and therefore invalid on its face. See my dissent in Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton, ante, p. 73. I would therefore reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand the case for further proceedings not inconsistent with my dissenting opinion in Slaton. In that circumstance, I have no occasion to consider whether, assuming that a prosecution could properly be brought, the seizure of the film at issue here was constitutional.

N. Y. Penal Law § 235.05:
“A person is guilty of obscenity when, knowing its content and character, he:
“1. Promotes, or possesses with intent to promote, any obscene material; or
“2. Produces, presents or directs an obscene performance or participates in a portion thereof which is obscene or which contributes to its obscenity.”