Court Opinion

ID: 9431167
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:31:30.747132+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:27.260983
License: Public Domain

Justice Stevens,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
A matter as important as the constitutionality of a state statute should not be decided on the basis of an advocate’s concession during oral argument in this Court. The Assistant Attorney General was certainly correct when he conceded that a statutory restriction on the commercial display of The Penguin Book of Love Poetry would be unconstitutional, but it is less clear that none of the 16 exhibits introduced by the plaintiffs could be subjected to the statutory prohibition. Moreover, the colloquy that is partially quoted ante, at 393-394, n. 8, is neither entirely unambiguous nor *399equivalent to a formal commitment by the State to dismiss the appeal if the Virginia Supreme Court advises us that one or more of the exhibits is covered by the statute. I would therefore modify the first certified question to ask the state court which, if any, of the plaintiff’s exhibits is covered by the statute. Because the arguable literary, artistic, or scientific value of the exhibits varies widely, as does the character of the sexual references in the different books, an answer to the question I would ask would be of great help in understanding the reach of the statute and evaluating its validity. Accordingly, while I am in substantial agreement with what the Court has written, I respectfully dissent from the Court’s refusal to ask the question that I have proposed.