Court Opinion

ID: 9724588
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 11:03:27.518062+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:02.809181
License: Public Domain

ELKINGTON, J.
I respectfully dissent from the views expressed by my colleagues on this court.
Their opinion, as I view it, extends the reach of the First Amendment even beyond its present scope. And it disregards well-established law vesting in the trial court broad discretion in imposing terms and conditions of probation. (See People v. King, 267 Cal.App.2d 814, 822 [73 Cal.Rptr. 440].)
It seems well at this point to consider the information before the trial court concerning Mannino, his demonstrated propensity for campus violence, and the crime of which he stands convicted.
In Oakland during October 1967 Mannino was arrested for disturbing the peace (Pen. Code, § 415), and refusing to disperse from the scene of a riot. Convicted of disturbing the peace, he was sentenced to 10 days in the county jail.
A month later at a University of California campus during the course of a demonstration by several hundred persons, an attempt was made to tear down several university flags and to replace them with others marked with a skull and crossbones. Several uniformed officers were assigned to prevent such malicious mischief. They were set upon by more than 100 persons who began striking, kicking and choking, and spitting and directing *970profanity at, the officers. Among the assaulters was Mannino who “had high heavy top shoes on and was using them to kick the officers.” One officer was badly injured on the right knee cap. Mannino, a nonstudent, was charged with and convicted of battery (Pen. Code, § 242) and resisting arrest (Pen. Code, § 148).
In February 1968 Mannino was arrested for some offense while participating in a demonstration at Cheyenne, Wyoming. He was traveling about the county engaged in anti-draft activity.
Thereafter Mannino became a student at the College of San Mateo. For some form of misconduct he was suspended and ordered from the campus. On December 11, 1968, he reappeared on the campus with one Ruiz against whom a warrant was outstanding for interfering “with the peaceful conduct of the activities of [a] school.” (Pen. Code, § 602.9, since repealed.) Campus officers, attempting to arrest Ruiz, were prevented from doing so iby Mannino who blocked their car. A nearby college instructor intervening in some way was struck several times on the head by Mannino and knocked to the ground. Mannino was arrested for this offense and released on bail.
The subject matter of Mannino’s felony assault conviction (Pen. Code, § 245) occurred the following day. The record before us shows the following:
“On December 12, 1968, at approximately 10:30 a.m., the defendant was speaking at an unauthorized rally in front of the Student Union Building at the College of San Mateo. He was using a public address system which had been set up by several of the activist groups on campus and apparently standing on some type of concrete ash tray delivering his speech. During the course of the speech, which dealt in alleged injustices on campus, a student in the crowd, Kenneth H. Cheeseman (date of birth June 4, 1948), challenged the defendant’s statements in a manner which apparently offended not only the defendant but several black students who were standing near the victim. One of the black students (not identified) struck the victim in the face several times, knocking him to the ground. Other black students, as well as some white students, continued to push and hit the victim while he was down. The exact circumstances of this particular activity are unknown as it occurred so rapidly in a very emotionally charged atmosphere. The defendant, however, jumped down from where he was speaking and kicked the victim in the face, severely fracturing the victim’s jaw. At the time the defendant was wearing heavy boots.
“The victim . . . was taken from the area by several of the college’s instructors and transported to the hospital. Extensive medical treatment has been required by the victim due to the severity of the injury to his jaw.”
*971Following his conviction some months later, Mannino’s reflective attitude toward his crime and plight was indicated by his statement: “As to the present offense, I stand on my testimony in Court. I was acting in self-defense in a highly tense situation. I am innocent of the charges and acted in what I thought was a correct manner.”
Despite the recommendation of a diagnostic facility of the Department of Corrections (pursuant to Pen. Code, § 1203.03) that Mannino be committed to state prison, the trial judge placed him on probation. But in doing so the court, among other things, ordered: “[1] He shall not, during the period of probation, speak for any organization on any college, high school, or junior high school campus or at any public function. [2] He shall not, during the period of probation, be present on any college, high school, or junior high school campus where he is not currently enrolled except for official courses, or other purpose specifically authorized by the school that he is attending. [3] He shall not participate in, actively or passively, nor shall he be an advisor to any on-campus or off-campus demonstration for any purpose whatsoever.”
The majority find the trial court’s order that Mannino, during the period of probation, not speak “for any organization on any college, high school, or junior high school campus or at any public function” would “curb [his] freedom of expression” under the First Amendment, since it “covers any speech for any organization regardless of the subject matter or the nature of the organization.” They also find the proscription against his being present, except on legitimate business, on the campus of any educational institution where he is not enrolled, would curtail “his freedom of movement.” Such a restraint, they say, “is overbroad and prohibits lawful movement which has no relationship with past or future criminality.”1 Constitutional fault is also found in the trial court’s requirement that Mannino “shall not participate in, actively or passively, nor shall he be an advisor to any on-campus or off-campus demonstration for any purpose whatsoever.” It is said that this “may be, and is, interpreted as curbing the petitioner's freedom of assembly, speech (including writing), and movement . . .” and that “From all that appears he may advise peaceful rather than unlawful demonstrations.” (Italics added.) Such restraint, it is concluded “is over-broad and prohibits lawful movement which has no relationship with past *972or future criminality,” and, too, his “passive participation” in such a demonstration “may have no relationship to his past or possible future criminality.”
People v. King, supra, 267 Cal.App.2d 814, 822 [73 Cal.Rptr. 440], restates the settled rule that: “Probation is not a matter of right but an act of clemency, the granting and revocation of which are entirely within the sound discretion of the court . . .; and in granting probation the trial court has broad discretion in imposing terms and conditions thereof.”
The majority hold that the probation conditions imposed by the trial judge constitute an abuse of this broad discretion. They necessarily say that no reasonable man, or judge, would have imposed similar conditions under the facts of this case, for “ ‘discretion is abused whenever, in its exercise, a court exceeds the bounds of reason, —all the circumstances before it being considered.’ ” (Crummer v. Beeler, 185 Cal.App.2d 851, 858 [8 Cal.Rptr. 698].)
With profound respect for my distinguished colleagues, I find myself obliged to conclude that the error of this case lies, not with the trial judge below, but instead with the rationale and conclusions of the majority of this court.
In my view, under the facts of this case, nothing could be more reasonable than the expectation that Mannino, again on a campus without scholastic or other school authorization, demonstrating and speaking for organizations thereon, would revert to the behavior which led to his conviction. For more than two years prior to arrest Mannino’s sole purpose in life seems to have been the violent expression of his particular beliefs. Even today, speaking of the heavy-booted fracturing of his victim’s facial bones he says, “I . . . acted in what I thought was a correct manner.”
A highly revered American once wisely expressed himself in this manner: “I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past.”2 But the majority say from “all that appears [Mannino] may advise peaceful rather than unlawful demonstrations,” and that his future participation in demonstrations “may have no relationship to his past or possible future criminality.” And they conclude that the trial judge, thinking otherwise, exceeded “the bounds of reason.”
According to the standards of the majority, the lower court could legally and properly and reasonably have committed Mannino to state prison for his offense. There he would surely have been frustrated in his campus visitation and demonstration desires and any attendant First Amendment *973rights. But the trial court, with obvious concern both for Mannino and for his probable future victims, weighing the respective interests thought otherwise and imposed the probation conditions which are the basis of this appeal. But in this, it is said the trial court acted unreasonably.
The holding of the majority undoubtedly has its genesis in the development of the concept of the “Supremacy of the First Amendment.” The doctrine is otherwise expressed as the “preferred freedom” and “preferred position” and “preferred place” of the First Amendment. It has been said to imply a sort of presumption in favor of those who claim denial of their First Amendment rights. The doctrine is of recent origin. In a primitive form it seems to have been first expressed in Herndon v. Lowry, 301 U.S. 242 [81 L.Ed. 1066, 57 S.Ct. 732] (see discussion, Kovacs v. Cooper, 336 U.S. 77, 90 [93 L.Ed. 513, 524, 69 S.Ct. 448, 10 A.L.R.2d 608]). Before long it became the “preferred freedom.” It seemed analogous to the special place a mother might find in her heart for her first born, while yet equally lavishing her love upon all. It was a catchy phrase—and as any good slogan will—it soon became widely known and used, with successive users expanding (as I believe this court does today) upon its meaning and coverage. Today it seems considered by many, judiciary, bar and laity alike, as sort of an article of faith to be accepted without inquiry or analysis by all true believers.
Nevertheless, “preferred freedom” is a mischievous phrase, for while seeming to express the idea of “first among equals” as originally intended, in our law today it connotes the idea of preference over other rights and other freedoms. I dispute the soundness of this common current concept. The First Amendment is not reasonably to be preferred over the Fourth, which guarantees “The right of the people to be secure” in their homes “against unreasonable” governmental intrusion. Nor does it seem that the First Amendment reasonably displaces in importance the right to a fair trial or the right not to “be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, . . .” (Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments), or other of our rights.
The case before us is a good illustration of the present day abuse of the concept under discussion.
The transcendental right in any enlightened state, certainly the United States, is the right of its people to protection from violence. This right is inherent in all constitutions. It is expressed by the centuries old maxim, “the safety of the people is the supreme law.” (Italics added.) (Ex parte Drexel, 147 Cal. 763, 766 [82 P. 429].) Under our system this unquestionably “supreme” right, and its cor*974relative duty, are reserved by the several states. It is so declared by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments.3
Any reasonable mind must conclude that Mannino, demonstrating in any fashion on a campus, is a menace to the safety of others, particularly those who may choose to exercise their First Amendment rights by differing with him. So a conflict arises—a conflict between the basic right of a citizen to protection from violence and the First Amendment’s “preferred freedom.” Under this day’s decision of our court the “preferred freedom” is again allowed to prevail over other established rights. Mannino’s “right of expression” on campuses where he does not belong will continue, defeating the time-honored right, and duty, of the trial court to protect others from a vicious felony probationer’s near certain assaults. Scant respect is paid to the supreme concern for the “safety of the people” and little consideration is given the next victim of Mannino’s face-bashing propensities.
Another unique development under the spell of the “preferred freedom” is appropriately pointed out here.
It is now the law that appellate courts “in free speech cases must make an independent examination of the whole record,” and thereupon make their own factual determination. (Italics added.) (L.A. Teachers Union v. L.A. City Bd. of Ed., 71 Cal.2d 551, 557 [78 Cal.Rptr. 723, 455 P.2d 827]; Zeitlin v. Arnebergh, 59 Cal.2d 901, 909 [31 Cal.Rptr. 800, 383 P.2d 15, 10 A.L.R.3d 707].)
Our courts long ago concluded that factual disputes are best resolved by judges or juries who hear and observe witnesses in the live atmosphere of the trial court room—rather than by an appellate court which must rely upon a written and sometimes misleading record. As a result the “substantial evidence” rule has developed. This principle holds that when a fact-finding determination is attacked on the ground that it is not sustained by evidence, the power of an appellate court begins and ends with the determination whether there is any substantial evidence, contradicted or uncontradicted, which will support the conclusion reached below; when two or more inferences can reasonably be drawn from the facts the reviewing court may not substitute its deductions for those of the trier of fact, nor itself pass upon the credibility of witnesses. (Green Trees Enterprises, *975Inc. v. Palm Springs Alpine Estates, Inc., 66 Cal.2d 782, 784-785 [59 Cal.Rptr. 141, 427 P.2d 805].)
Any rule which compels appellate courts to substitute their factual findings for those of a trial court or jury must necessarily result in less credible factual resolutions—otherwise there can be no reason for the “substantial evidence” rule, and there is slight purpose in our jury system. Such a practice would tend to deny—rather than assure—constitutionally guaranteed First Amendment rights. And any requirement—that factual determinations in the important area of constitutional rights must be made by the tribunal least fitted to do so—must inevitably lead to the degradation of those rights. It is hard to reconcile such a requirement with the rule that in all other areas factual findings on substantial evidence by a court or jury must stand, beyond the reach of appellate courts even though one’s freedom, or even life, may be in the balance.
I have said that the expression “preferred freedom” is a “mischievous phrase.” This was not the presumptuousness of a minor appellate judge; its authorship is not mine. It was the considered judgment of a giant of our judicial history, Justice Felix Frankfurter. In 1948 in a concurring opinion in Kovacs v. Cooper, supra, 336 U.S. 77, 89-97 [93 L.Ed. 513, 523-528], the justice described as a formula, the phrase “preferred position of freedom of speech.” (Judicial phrasemaking later polished the expression into “preferred freedom” and “First Amendment supremacy.”) He said (p. 90 [93 L.Ed. p. 524]): “This is a phrase that has uncritically crept into some recent opinions of this Court. I deem it a mischievous phrase, if it carries the thought, which it may subtly imply, that any law touching communication is infected with presumptive invalidity. It is not the first time in the history of constitutional adjudication that such a doctrinaire attitude has disregarded the admonition most to be observed in exercising the Court’s reviewing power over legislation, ‘that it is a constitution we are expounding.’ M’Culloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. (U.S.) 316, 407, 42 L.Ed. 579, 602. I say the phrase is mischievous because it radiates a constitutional doctrine without avowing it. Clarity and candor in these matters, so as to avoid gliding unwittingly into error, make it appropriate to trace the history of the phrase ‘preferred position.’ . . .”
Justice Frankfurter then pointed out that the expression had its origin in a dissenting opinion in Jones v. Opelika, 316 U.S. 584, 600, 608 [86 L.Ed. 1691, 1703, 1707, 62 S.Ct. 1231], and proceeded to discuss its development through the years. He opined that there had developed an unspoken and unreasonable presumption of invalidity of official conduct or law touching upon communication (contrary to the otherwise universal rule that “all presumptions favor the [constitutional] validity of statutes”; see *976In re Cregler, 56 Cal.2d 308, 311 [14 Cal.Rptr. 289, 363 P.2d 305]). Recognizing that the First Amendment must often collide with other constitutionally guaranteed rights he indicated that such opposing public interests must be adjusted and reconciled reasonably, not with the supremacy of one over the other. He stated (336 U.S. at p. 95 [93 L.Ed. at p. 526-527]): “Behind the notion sought to be expressed by the formula as to ‘the preferred position of freedom of speech’ lies a relevant consideration in determining whether an enactment relating to the liberties protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is violative of it”; and (at p. 96 [93 L.Ed. at p. 527]): “The objection to summarizing this line of thought by the phrase ‘the preferred position of freedom of speech’ is that it expresses a complicated process of constitutional adjudication by a deceptive formula. And it was Mr. Justice Holmes who admonished us that ‘To rest upon a formula is a slumber that, prolonged, means death.’ Collected Legal Papers, 306. Such a formula makes for mechanical jurisprudence.”
And the justice warned that “Complicated problems [are] hardly to be solved by an easy formula about the preferred position of free speech.” (Italics added.)
Many areas of present day disruption of our national life point to the wisdom and prescience of Justice Frankfurter.
Following the “preferred freedom” formula it is now the law that the First Amendment protection of freedom of expression “stops with the perpetration of violence [since] free discussion must die upon the battlefields of force.” (In re Cox, 3 Cal.3d 205, 223 [90 Cal.Rptr. 24, 474 P.2d 992].) This must mean, and certainly it is generally believed to mean, that any words, or conduct, short of violence, regardless of how ominous, threatening, or certain to result in violence, are constitutionally protected forms of expression. Some illustrations of the inevitable result follow.
We advert again to the case at bench for an example. Regardless of Mannino’s demonstrated propensity for violence and the near certainty that such will attend his permitted “passive” campus demonstrations, the trial court is rendered impotent by the “preferred freedom” until another victim’s jaw is broken or some similar violence recurs.
Because of similar reasoning, today armed and threatening mobs may demonstrate by marching upon college administrative buildings, banks, and other premises constitutionally undeterred, until their openly declared objective, destruction of property, or arson, or whatever it may be, is accomplished—at which point their mobilization of force is generally beyond governmental control.
*977College professors may without restraint openly teach and advocate the overthrow of the United States by force; emphasizing the obvious, this means by killing and maiming people.
Another pertinent area in which presumptively lesser rights must yield to First Amendment supremacy is pointed up by In re Kay, 1 Cal.3d 930 [83 Cal.Rptr. 686, 469 P.2d 142]. Kay and others were convicted by a jury of violating Penal Code section 403, which states: “Every person who, without authority of law, wilfully disturbs or breaks up any assembly or meeting, not unlawful in its character, ... is guilty of a misdemeanor.” While a political candidate was addressing a group of about 6,000 persons, the defendants joined “between 25 and 250” other persons for less than 10 minutes in rhythmically handclapping and shouting. Substituting its own findings for those of the jury, as demanded by L.A. Teachers Union v. L.A. City Bd. of Ed., supra, 71 Cal.2d 551, and Zeitlin v. Arnebergh, supra, 59 Cal.2d 901, the court found no substantial disruption, and Kay’s conduct to be constitutionally permitted despite California law. Ironically, this rejects the First Amendment rights of the candidate to speak and of his audience to hear. A result: It is common knowledge that high public officials and candidates for public offices, under the coercion of such permitted activity, tend to avoid exposing themselves in public appearances.4
Another illustration is disclosed by Mandel v. Municipal Court, 276 Cal.App.2d 649 [81 Cal.Rptr. 173]. Mandel, 23 years old, attempting to organize a high school student strike, passed out handbills on several school campuses, which státed (p. 675): “ ‘. . . groups are organizing a student strike and other activities against the war, the draft and racism for April 26.’ *978It continued, ‘If you want to help, if you need help with the draft, or if you just have questions about the war, there’ll be a meeting.’ (Italics added.) . . . .” Refusing to leave the premises of one of the schools he was arrested for a misdemeanor violation of Penal Code section 602.9 (since repealed) which stated: “Any person who comes . . . upon any school ground . . . without lawful business thereon, and whose presence or acts interfere with the peaceful conduct of the activities of such school or disrupt the school or its pupils or school activities, and who remains there, after being asked to leave ... is guilty of a misdemeanor.” It was held (p. 674) that the provisions of this section “cannot be constitutionally construed to block the channels of peaceful communication or stifle peaceful activity.” The municipal court was prohibited from trying Mandel. It would seem that the right of parents and of the state to educate their children (see Ninth and Tenth Amendments, quoted ante, fn. 3) were given scant consideration v/hen overshadowed by the First Amendment’s “preferred freedom.”
The runaway nature of this present day interpretation of the First Amendment is perhaps best exemplified by recent California decisions relating to obscenity.
In 1961 the Supreme Court in In re Harris, 56 Cal.2d 879, 880 [16 Cal.Rptr. 889, 366 P.2d 305], reaffirmed established law that “The standard for judging obscenity adequate to withstand the charge of constitutional infirmity is whether to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interest.” The concept of “community” was at that time defined as “the people who reside in a given locality in more or less proximity.” (Keech v. Joplin, 157 Cal. 1,. 11 [106 P. 222].) The determination whether “the dominant theme of the material, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interest” was left to juries and trial courts of the community involved.
Then in 1968 the court in In re Giannini, 69 Cal.2d 563, 575-580 [72 Cal.Rptr. 655, 446 P.2d 535], uninfluenced by higher authority, announced a new rule. For the purpose of establishing the pertinent “contemporary community standards” the entire state became the community; it was no longer “the people who reside in a given locality in more or less proximity.” And also, in Giannini the court declared (p. 576) that “the constitutional test for obscenity does not in any way indicate that a jury inevitably can accurately apply this standard without guidance.” The jury’s guidance was placed in the hands of “expert witnesses.” The court gave no suggestion as to the recruitment source of such witnesses, but pointed out that “commentators and courts have concluded that this problem does not raise an insurmountable barrier.”
*979But even as the “statewide community standard—expert witness" rule was being promulgated, it was also being eroded. For in People v. Noroff (1967) 67 Cal.2d 791 [63 Cal.Rptr. 575, 433 P.2d 479], the court had declared, as a matter of law, absent a sexual activity, that the presentation or representation of the human body or any of its parts, no matter how ingenious or suggestive or repulsive the display, is not obscene. By judicial fiat, consideration of community standards in a large field touching on obscenity was thereby removed from juries, trial courts and even expert witnesses.
People v. Noroff, supra, concerned a $4 per copy magazine entitled “Collectors Issue” which carried the warning “For Adults Only.” Inside were 78 pictures, in 74 of which “the genitalia are emphasized.” Concluding that the United States Supreme Court had given such material First Amendment protection the court said (p. 796), “We cannot withhold such protection here.” The court added (p. 797): “That court has told us that no matter how ugly or repulsive the presentation, we are not to hold nudity, absent a sexual activity, to be obscene. . . .”
Noroff is now commonly offered in legal justification for the flood of books and magazines now adorning the shelves of California’s periodical shops and other places, containing a wide variety of inventive and suggestive poses by nudes of one, or of the other, or of both sexes, but “absent a sexual activity.” A short walk from the chambers of this court will bring one to several such shops prominently displaying this material including life size color reproductions of human genitalia on magazine cover pages. Indeed, in San Francisco one can even purchase at some street corners tabloids actually displaying “sexual activity” on their front pages in defiance of Noroff’s limits. Why this is permitted I do not know; it probably results from the discouragement of police and prosecutors from attempts to enforce the obviously unenforceable obscenity laws of this state.
The erosion of the Giannini “statewide community standard—expert witness” rule continued apace with Barrows v. Municipal Court, 1 Cal.3d 821 [83 Cal.Rptr. 819, 464 P.2d 483], There an actor and actress on stage in a play called “The Beard” “simulated” acts of cunnilingus. (See Dixon v. Municipal Court, 267 Cal.App.2d 789 [73 Cal.Rptr. 587].) They were charged with a misdemeanor violation of Penal Code section 647, subdivision (a) which, as pertinent, states: “Every person who commits any of the following acts is guilty of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor: (a) Who solicits anyone to engage in or who engages in lewd or dissolute conduct in any public place or in any place open to the public or exposed to public view.”
The court found no obscenity. Reaffirming an earlier holding, it said *980(p. 830): “Giannini makes it clear that ‘acts which are unlawful in a different context, circumstance, or place, may be depicted or incorporated in a stage or screen presentation and come within the protection of the First Amendment, losing that protection only if found to be obscene.’ (69 Cal.2d at p. 572.) We particularly reaffirm this portion of the decision in Giannini, for any more restrictive rule could annihilate in a stroke much of the modern theater and cinema. The loss to culture and to First Amendment rights would be equally tragic.”
Many are willing to argue that the absence of simulated acts of cunnilingus from our public stages would not be an appreciable “loss to our culture,” certainly not a “tragic loss.”5
Barrows, as a matter of constitutional law, dictates that public stage portrayals of copulation of one’s mouth with the sexual organ of another is not obscene. Such conduct also is thereby placed beyond any control by California’s Legislature, or its trial courts, juries, and local legislative bodies. The area in which such bodies may act in the field of obscenity has now approached the point of de minimis. Our obscenity laws, in their near entirety, are now imposed upon the people by divided appellate courts (in Barrows, 4 to 3) the majorities of which, in my respectful opinion, are pronouncing false gospel.
Today, San Francisco’s newspapers,6 quoting high city officials, declare the city to be the “Smut Capital of the United States.” It is said that 30 to 40 of its theaters specialize “in pornographic films and live on stage sex acts . . . the grossest, crudest kind of stuff.” The spokesman was not talking about such films as “I am Curious (Yellow),” but instead “about the very hard core, denigrating material which is being shown both on the screen and live stage. ... It is something very sick and very sad.” Particularly sad was the appearance of a participant “who appeared to us to be under *98116 years of age and appeared to be pregnant.” Shown were films “of bestiality, masochism, sadism, and episodes of gang rape in graphic, life-style form.” One theater “which had been showing pornographic movies” to young and old alike was finally “closed because it had become a narcotic drop for students from a nearby school.”7
I think there should be a general judicial retreat from the excesses to which a blind respect for a deceptive formula has led us. At least in our position as an intermediate court of appeal, bound by the rulings handed down to us by our superiors, we need not today broaden the false concept of a “preferred freedom.”
I would deny in its entirety Mannino’s application for a writ of habeas corpus.
A petition for a rehearing was denied March 1, 1971. Elkington, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted. Respondent’s petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied March 31, 1971. Wright, C. J., McComb, J., and Burke, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.

The majority do not consider the common practice of “modifying” probation conditions when good cause therefor appears. It seems obvious, from the thoughtful consideration already given Mannino by the trial judge, that if the probation conditions appeared unreasonably restrictive of any legitimate purpose of Mannino such a modification would be forthcoming. If not, perhaps then First Amendment and other constitutional rights would reasonably be at issue.

Patrick Henry—speech in the Virginia Convention, March 1775.

“Amendment IX
“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
“Amendment X
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

The post In re Kay posture of the applicable law seems to be well illustrated by the following current news items of the San Francisco Chronicle:
“Hecklers Rout Lodge at Stanford
“Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, the statesman-diplomat who is this country’s representative to the Vatican, was hooted and heckled off the stage at Stanford yesterday as he sought to open a three-day conference on the United Nations.
“The usually imperturbable Boston Brahmin, face flushed with distress, faced an overflow audience of more than 800 in Dinklespiel auditorium for about ten minutes, as upwards of 150 young people shouted unprintable epithets at him and chanted antiwar slogans. . . .
“Lodge and his entourage were hustled out the back entrance of the auditorium and were rushed to the Faculty Club. There, hurriedly and almost in secret, the ambassador’s speech was rescheduled.” (January 12, 1971.)
“Calling Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge a ‘war criminal,’ Professor H. Bruce Franklin yesterday defended demonstrators—himself included-—who shouted down Lodge during a speech at Stanford on Monday.
“Franklin, a self-proclaimed Maoist and a leader of many demonstrations at Stanford in recent years, questioned whether ‘a murderer like that’ still deserved freedom of speech—or even the right to live.” (January 13, 1971.)
For obvious reasons no arrests were made or other police action taken.

The exemption of such matter from any state control “when depicted or incorporated in a stage or screen presentation” seems to be well illustrated by another current newspaper story (San Francisco Chronicle, January 12, 1971):
“San Francisco’s official smut-smiters suffered at least one and possibly two more serious setbacks yesterday.
“In a decision that could have far-ranging consequences in prosecutions of pornographic movies, Municipal Court Judge Harry W. Low ruled that the hard-core film ‘Mona’ is not obscene. . . .
“Judge Low in effect threw out the case against Les Natali, 29, manager of several ‘adult’ theaters, by granting a motion to suppress the evidence (the film ‘Mona’) against him. . . .
“Judge Low said he found the film ‘offensive personally’ and a ‘waste of money.’ But he ruled that despite various explicit acts of intercourse, oral copulation, etc., ‘it is not obscene within the requirements of the law.’ ”

San Francisco Examiner, November 11, 1970; San Francisco Chronicle, November 23, December 29, 1970.

This touches upon the some time argument that willing adults, but of course not children, should be permitted freely to indulge their obscenity fancies. It is difficult to see how matter, which by force of constitutional law is not obscene, can legally be kept from juveniles. And recent events have disclosed that each First Amendment extension is quickly and thoroughly exploited among both the young and the old.