PARIS ADULT THEATRE I v. SLATON - 418 U.S. 939 (1974)
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U.S. Supreme Court
PARIS ADULT THEATRE I v. SLATON , 418 U.S. 939 (1974)
418 U.S. 939
PARIS ADULT THEATRE I et al.
v.
Lewis R. SLATON, as District Attorney, Atlanta Judicial Circuit, et al.
No. 73-1161.
Supreme Court of the United States
July 25, 1974
Leave to File Petition for Rehearing Denied Oct. 15, 1974.
See 419 U.S. 887.
On petition for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of Georgia.
The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.
Mr. Justice DOUGLAS, being of the view that any state ban on obscenity is prohibited by the First Amendment, made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth (see Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton, 413 U.S. 49, 70-73 (1973) (Douglas, J., dissenting)), would grant certi-
orari and reverse the judgment below.
Mr. Justice BRENNAN, with whom Mr. Justice STEWART and Mr. Justice MARSHALL join, dissenting.
Respondents, the local state district attorney and solicitor for the local state trial court, filed civil complaints seeking to enjoin petitioners, Atlanta, Georgia movie theatres and their owners and managers, from exhibiting two allegedly obscene films, in violation of Georgia Code Ann. 26-2101. That section provides, in relevant part:
- '(a) A person commits the offense of distributing obscene materials when he sells, lends, rents, leases, gives, advertises, publishes, exhibits or otherwise disseminates to any person any obscene material of any description, knowing the obscene nature thereof, or who offers to do so, or who possesses such material with the intent so to do . . . .
- '(b) Material is obscene if considered as a whole, applying community standards, its predominant appeal is to prurient interest, that is, a shameful or morbid interest in nudity, sex or excretion, and utterly without redeeming social value and if, in addition, it goes substantially beyond customary limits of candor in describing or representing such matters. . . .
* * * * *
- '(d) A person convicted of distributing obscene material shall for the first offense be punished as for a misdemeanor, and for any subsequent offense shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than five years, or by a fine not to exceed $5,000, or both.'
The trial judge dismissed respondents' complaints, but the Georgia Supreme Court reversed. 228 Ga. 343, 185 [418 U.S. 939 , 941]
