THEVIS v. U.S.
| Decision Date | 01 January 1974 |
| Citation | 418 U.S. 932 |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Rehearing Denied Oct. 15, 1974.
On petition for writs of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
The petitions for writs of certiorari are denied.
Mr. Justice DOUGLAS, being of the view that any federal ban on obscenity is prohibited by the First Amendment (see United States v. 12 200-ft. Reels of Film, 413 U.S. 123, 130-138 (1973) (Douglas, J., dissenting)), would grant certiorari and reverse the judgments of conviction.
Petitioners were convicted in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida on charges of using a common carrier for carriage of allegedly obscene
matter in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1462, which provides in pertinent part as follows: 'Whoever . . . knowingly uses any express company or other common carrier, for carriage in interstate or foreign commerce--
'(a) any obscene, lewd, lascivious, or filthy book, pamphlet, picture, motion-picture film, paper, letter, writing, print, or other matter of indecent character.
* * * * * 'Shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both . . ..'
The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the convictions on six counts.
I adhere to my dissent in United States v. Orito, 413 U.S. 139, 147, in which, speaking of 18 U.S.C. 1462, I expressed the view that '[w]hatever the extent of the Federal Government's power to bar the distribution of allegedly obscene material to juveniles or the offensive exposure of such material to unconsenting adults, the statute before us is clearly overbroad and unconstitutional on its face.' Id., at 147-148. For the reasons stated in my dissent in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 47 (1973 ), I would therefore grant certiorari, and, since the judgments of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit were rendered after Orito, reverse.'*
In that circumstance, I have no occasion to consider whether the other questions presented merit plenary review. See Heller v. New York, 413 U.S. 483, 494 (1973) (Brennan, J., dissenting).
Moreover, on the basis of the Court's own holding in Jenkins v. Georgia, 418 U.S. 153 (1974), its denials of certiorari are
improper. As permitted by Supreme Court Rule 21(1), which provides that the record in a case need not be certified to this Court, the petitioners did not certify the allegedly obscene materials involved in these cases. It is plain, therefore, that the Court, which has not requested the certification of those materials, has failed to discharge its admitted responsibility under Jenkins independently to review those materials under the second and third parts of the Miller obscenity test. Nor can it be assumed that ...
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Marks v. United States v. 1976
...16 L.Ed.2d 1 (1966) (plurality opinion). United States v. Thevis, 484 F.2d 1149 (C.A.5 1973) (Thevis I), cert. denied, 418 U.S. 932, 94 S.Ct. 3222, 41 L.Ed.2d 1170 (1974); United States v. Palladino, 490 F.2d 499 (C.A.1 1974). The Courts of Appeals there, foreshadowing to some extent our la......
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People v. Neumayer
...(1974) (construing 18 U.S.C. 1461 (1970)); United States v. Thevis, 484 F.2d 1149, 1155 (5th Cir. 1973), Cert. denied, 418 U.S. 932 (94 S.Ct. 3222, 41 L.Ed.2d 1170) (1974) (construing 18 U.S.C. 1462 (1970)); United States v. Marks, 364 F.Supp. 1022, 1026 (E.D.Ky. 1973) (construing 18 U.S.C.......
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Penthouse Intern., Ltd. v. McAuliffe
...two decisions involving the same defendant. United States v. Thevis, 484 F.2d 1149 (5 Cir. 1973), Cert. denied, 418 U.S. 932, 94 S.Ct. 3222, 41 L.Ed.2d 1170 (1974) (Thevis I ); United States v. Thevis, 526 F.2d 989 (5 Cir.), Cert. denied, 429 U.S. 928, 97 S.Ct. 335, 50 L.Ed.2d 299 (1976) (T......
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U.S. v. Marks
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