Massachusetts v. Oakes

The Supreme Court came to some important conclusions about the concept of "overbreadth"--the idea that a statute is so broad and sweeping in what it calls illegal, it might have a "chilling effect," discouraging speech or activity that is actually protected under the Constitution.

One afternoon in 1984, Douglas Oakes took ten color photographs of his 14-year-old stepdaughter, L. S. He photographed her in the basement of the home where he, she, and her mother lived together, with L. S. wearing nothing but red-and-white-striped bikini bottoms and a red scarf that only partially covered her breasts. As Justice Scalia later described them, the photographs were "sexually provocative . . . of the type frequently found in magazines displayed by storekeepers in sealed cellophane wrappers."

Indeed, as L. S. testified at Oakes' trial, her stepfather told her that he "wanted to make her big for Playboy." When L. S. saw the developed photographs, she tore them up and threw them in the woods, but, according to her testimony, Oakes made her find them and give them back. L. S. also testified that Oakes had taken the pictures while her mother was away. The case against Oakes began because of the complaint L. S. made against him.