Court Opinion

ID: 9427826
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:22:02.756764+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:09.759879
License: Public Domain

Mr. Chief Justice Burger,
with whom Mr. Justice Powell joins, dissenting.
I would dismiss the appeal for failure to present a real and substantial controversy “of the immediacy which is an indis*318pensable condition of constitutional adjudication.” Poe v. Ullman, 367 U. S. 497, 508 (1961) (plurality opinion). Alternatively, I would abstain from decision until the Texas courts interpret the challenged statute. I would not reach the merits of this "dispute” at this stage.
This Court’s power of constitutional review is “most securely founded when it is exercised under the impact of a lively conflict between antagonistic demands, actively pressed, which make resolution of the controverted issue a practical necessity.” Id., at 503. This case quite plainly fails to satisfy that rigorous standard. Here, Texas has conceded at oral argument that the injunctive remedy of Art. 4667 (a) is not likely to be used by any Texas prosecutor.1 In light of this concession, this case recalls Poe, where Mr. Justice Frankfurter concluded:
“The fact that [the State] has not chosen to press the enforcement of this statute deprives these controversies of the immediacy which is an indispensable condition of constitutional adjudication. This Court cannot be umpire to debates concerning harmless, empty shadows.” 367 U. S., at 508.
By passing on the constitutionality of the Texas statute, the Court ignores this wise counsel.2
*319Moreover, the need for constitutional decision could be obviated in this case by permitting the Texas courts an opportunity to interpret Texas law. The Court today assumes (1) that “a temporary injunction of indefinite duration” could be issued against a named motion picture “on the basis of a showing of probable success on the merits,” ante, at 316, n. 14; and (2) that an exhibitor would be subject to criminal contempt proceedings for violating such an injunction even if the motion picture is ultimately adjudged nonobscene, ante, at 316, and n. 16. If these assumptions are correct, the statute is obviously flawed. See Freedman v. Maryland, 380 U. S. 51 (1965). But there is ample reason to believe that the Court may be wrong in today’s conjectures; indeed, there is a serious question as to whether the Texas statute even authorizes an injunction against a named film. Compare ante, at 312, and dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice White, post, at 325. If such an injunction is permitted, the decision of the Texas Court of Civil Appeals in Locke v. State, 516 S. W. 2d 949 (1974), casts doubt on the assumption that it can be obtained on a showing of probable success. There, the Texas court in reviewing the validity of a temporary injunction entered against a motion picture exhibitor made a de novo on-the-merits determination of obscenity.3 Are we really to believe that the trial court applies a less stringent, probable-success standard? At the very least, Locke demonstrates that if an injunction is *320obtainable on such a slender showing, it is likely to enjoy a short life. It provides stark proof that only by abstaining from decision can we know whether Texas law is as the Court today “forecasts” it to be. See Railroad Comm’n v. Pullman Co., 312 U. S. 496, 499 (1941).4 “So fragile a record is an unsatisfactory basis on which to entertain this action for declaratory relief.” Public Affairs Press v. Rickover, 369 U. S. 111, 114 (1962).
In sum, I am unwilling to join the Court in “umpiring” an empty debate on a question of Texas law on which the Texas courts have not yet had an opportunity to speak. I therefore would dismiss the appeal.

 “QUESTION: Well, what does it — why, then, do you need [this statute], if it is the equivalent of the Texas criminal law?
“MR. ZWEINER: I am not sure that we do, to be frank; but—
“QUESTION: What does it add to the criminal law. It changes the burden of proof, it deprives a person of a jury trial.
“MR. ZWEINER: I don’t think it adds anything. As a matter of fact I think it is a cumbersome process and I don’t know that the prosecutor after more than two rounds will ever use it again. . . .” Tr. of Oral Arg. 36-37.

 It is true that the State was the appellee in Poe and that it is the appellant here. This difference, however, should not be controlling for purposes of determining whether the dispute is a real one. Here, the challenged statute was defended in perfunctory fashion, apparently more *319out of a sense of duty than anything else. The State filed a nine-page brief with only three pages devoted to analysis; it derided the injunctive remedy as “cumbersom[e] and ineffectual)]” Brief for Appellants 6.

 In Locke, the Texas court wrote as follows:
“In accordance with the requirement that an independent determination of the obscene nature of the material is made by the reviewing court, we have viewed the films introduced as exhibits below, and we find them to be obscene by any reasonable definition. The films have practically no plot or story content. . . . Their appeal is wholly to the prurient interest in sexual conduct. They are obscene according to both the Texas statutory definition and the test approved by the United States Supreme Court in Miller v. California.” 516 S. W. 2d, at 954.

 Equally dubious is the Court’s second assumption' that an exhibitor could be punished for disobeying a temporary injunction even if the motion picture shown is ultimately found nonobscene. It is an open question whether Texas in these circumstances would apply a rule analogous to that invoked in Walker v. City of Birmingham, 388 U. S. 307 (1967), to bar a defendant from raising a First Amendment defense in an action for contempt.