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SMITH v. CALIFORNIA (1959)

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Seal of the Supreme Court of the United States
SMITH v. CALIFORNIA
Term: 1959
Important Dates
Argued: November 20, 1959
Decided: December 14, 1959
Outcome
Reversed
Vote
9-0
Majority
William Brennan • Tom Clark • Potter Stewart • Earl Warren • Charles Whittaker
Concurring
Hugo Black • William Douglas • Felix Frankfurter • John Harlan II

SMITH v. CALIFORNIA is a case that was decided by the Supreme Court of the United States on December 14, 1959. The case was argued before the court on November 20, 1959.

In a 9-0 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the ruling of the lower court. The case originated from the California State Trial Court.

For a full list of cases decided in the 1950s, click here. For a full list of cases decided by the Warren Court, click here.

[1]

About the case

  • Subject matter: First Amendment - obscenity, state (cf. comity: privacy): including the regulation of sexually explicit material under the 21st Amendment
  • Petitioner: Bookstore, newsstand, printer, bindery, purveyor or distributor of books or magazines
  • Petitioner state: Unknown
  • Respondent type: State
  • Respondent state: California
  • Citation: 361 U.S. 147
  • How the court took jurisdiction: Appeal
  • What type of decision was made: Opinion of the court (orally argued)
  • Who was the chief justice: Earl Warren
  • Who wrote the majority opinion: William Brennan

These data points were accessed from The Supreme Court Database, which also attempts to categorize the ideological direction of the court's ruling in each case. This case's ruling was categorized as liberal.

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Harold J. Spaeth, Lee Epstein, et al., "2023 Supreme Court Database, Version 2023 Release 1 and SCDB Legacy 07," accessed March 21, 2024
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