Jacobellis v. Ohio 378 U.S. 184 (1964)

• Author: Kim Mclane Wardlaw
• Pages: 1414

Page 1414

The Supreme Court reversed Jacobellis's conviction for possessing and exhibiting an obscene motion picture, finding the movie not obscene under ROTH V. UNITED STATES (1957). Justice WILLIAM J. BRENNAN'S plurality opinion announced two significant constitutional developments and presaged a third. First, in any case raising the issue whether a work was obscene, the Court would determine independently whether the material was constitutionally protected. Second, in judging the material's appeal to prurient interests against "contemporary community standards," courts were to apply a national standard, not the standards of the particular local community from which the case arose. Finally, purporting to apply standards based on Roth and foreshadowing his opinion in MEMOIRS V. MASSACHUSETTS (1965), Brennan noted that a work could not be proscribed unless it was "utterly' without social importance."

Jacobellis is best...