Jacobellis v. Ohio

Appellant

Nico Jacobellis

Appellee

State of Ohio

Appellant's Claim

That under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, he should not have been punished for showing The Lovers, a film deemed obscene under Ohio State law.

Chief Lawyer for Appellant

John T. Corrigan

Chief Lawyer for Appellee

Ephraim London

Justices for the Court

Hugo Lafayette Black, William J. Brennan, Jr. (writing for the Court), William O. Douglas, Arthur Goldberg, Potter Stewart, Byron R. White

Justices Dissenting

Tom C. Clark, John Marshall Harlan II, Earl Warren

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

22 June 1964

Decision

The film was not obscene and Jacobellis' conviction should be overturned.

Related Cases

• Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476 (1957).
• Kingsley Pictures Corp. v. Regents of the University of the State of New York, 360 U.S. 684 (1959).
• Manual Enterprises, Inc., v. Day, 370 U.S. 478 (1962).
• Bantam Books Inc. v. Sullivan, 372 U.S. 58 (1963).
• Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973).
• Jenkins v. Georgia, 418 U.S. 153 (1974).

Sources

Grazia, Edward de and Roger K. Newman. Banned Films: Movies, Censors and the First Amendment. New York: R. R. Bowker, 1982.