Stanley v. Georgia

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Stanley v. Georgia

Argued January 14 – 15, 1969
Decided April 7, 1969


Full case name:	Stanley v. Georgia

Citations:	394 U.S. 557; 89 S. Ct. 1243; 22 L. Ed. 2d 542; 1969 U.S. LEXIS 1972

Prior history:	Defendant convicted; conviction affirmed, Supreme Court of Georgia, 224 Ga. 259, 161 S. E. 2d 309; certiorari granted, 393 U.S. 819

Subsequent history:	Conviction reversed

Holding

The State may not prohibit mere possession of obscene matter on the ground that it may lead to antisocial conduct, or proscribe such possession on the ground that it is a necessary incident to a statutory scheme prohibiting distribution

Court membership

Chief Justice: Earl Warren
Associate Justices: Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, John Marshall Harlan II, William J. Brennan, Potter Stewart, Byron White, Abe Fortas, Thurgood Marshall

Case opinions

Majority by: Marshall
Joined by: unanimous
Concurrence by: Black
Concurrence by: Stewart
Joined by: Brennan, White

Laws applied

U.S. Const. amends. I, XIV

Stanley v. Georgia, 394 U.S. 557 (1969), was a United States Supreme Court decision that helped to establish a personal "right to privacy" in U.S. law.

The Georgia home of Robert Eli Stanley, a suspected and previously-convicted bookmaker, was searched by police with a federal warrant to seize betting paraphernalia. They found none, but instead seized three reels of pornographic material from a desk drawer in an upstairs bedroom, and later charged Mr. Stanley with the possession of obscene materials, a crime under Georgia law. This conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court of Georgia.

The Court unanimously overturned the earlier decision and invalidated all state laws that forbid the private possession of materials judged obscene, on the grounds of the 1st and 14th Amendments. Justices Stewart, Brennan, and White, contributed a joint concurring opinion. Justice Hugo Black also concurred, with a separate opinion.