Butler v. State of Michigan

• Court: U.S. Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: FRANKFURTER
• Citation: Butler v. State of Michigan, 352 U.S. 380, 77 S.Ct. 524, 1 L.Ed.2d 412 (1957)
• Decision Date: 25 February 1957
• Docket Number: No. 16,16
• Parties: Alfred E. BUTLER, Appellant, v. STATE OF MICHIGAN

352 U.S. 380

77 S.Ct. 524

1 L.Ed.2d 412

Alfred E. BUTLER, Appellant,

v STATE OF MICHIGAN.

No. 16.

Argued Oct. 16, 1956.

Decided Feb. 25, 1957.

Mr. Manuel Lee Robbins, New York City, for the appellant.

Mr. Edmund E. Shepherd, Detroit, Mich., for the appellee.

Mr. Justice FRANKFURTER delivered the opinion of the Court.

This appeal from a judgment of conviction entered by the Recorder's Court of the City of Detroit, Michigan challenges the constitutionality of the following provision, § 343, of the Michigan Penal Code, Comp.Laws Supp.1954, § 750.343:

'Any person who shall import, print, publish, sell, possess with the intent to sell, design, prepare, loan, give away, distribute or offer for sale, any book, magazine, newspaper, writing, pamphlet, ballad, printed paper, print, picture, drawing, photograph, publication or other thing, including any recordings, containing obscene, immoral, lewd or lascivious language, or obscene, immoral, lewd or lascivious prints, pictures, figures or descriptions, tending to incite minors to violent or depraved or immoral acts, manifestly tending to the corruption of the morals of youth, or shall introduce into any family, school or place of education or shall buy, procure, receive or have in his possession, any such book, pamphlet, magazine, newspaper, writing, ballad, printed paper, print, picture, drawing, photograph, publication or other thing, either for the purpose of sale, exhibition, loan or circulation, or with intent to introduce the same into any family, school or place of education, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.'

Appellant was charged with its violation for selling to a police officer what the trial judge characterized as 'a book containing obscene, immoral, lewd, lascivious language, or descriptions, tending to incite minors to violent or depraved or immoral acts, manifestly tending to the corruption of the morals of youth.' Appellant moved to dismiss the proceeding on the claim that application of § 343 unduly restricted freedom of speech as protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in that the statute (1) prohibited distribution of a book to the general public on the basis of the undesirable influence it may have upon youth; (2) damned a book and proscribed its sale merely because of some isolated passages that appeared objectionable when divorced from the book as a whole; and (3) failed to provide a sufficiently definite standard of guilt. After hearing the evidence, the trial judge denied the motion, and, in an oral opinion, held that '* * * the defendant is guilty because he sold a book in the City of Detroit containing this language (the passages deemed offensive), and also because the Court feels that even viewing the book as a whole, it (the objectionable language) was not necessary to the proper development of the theme of the book nor of the conflict expressed therein.' Appellant was fined $100.

Pressing his federal claims, appellant applied for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Michigan. Although the State consented to the granting of the application 'because the issues involved in this case are of great public interest, and because it appears that further clarification of the language of * * * (the statute) is necessary,' leave to appeal was denied. In view of this denial, the appeal is here from the Recorder's Court of Detroit. We noted probable jurisdiction. 350 U.S. 963, 76 S.Ct. 432, 100 L.Ed. 837....