MILLER v. CALIFORNIA

Legal Principle at Issue

Is the sale and distribution by mail of books containing explicit pictures of sexual activities protected under the First Amendment's freedom of speech guarantee?

Action

Vacated and remanded. Petitioning party received a favorable disposition.

Facts/Syllabus

This is one of a group of "obscenity-pornography" cases decided by the Supreme Court in a re-examination of standards enunciated in earlier cases involving what Justice John Harlan called "the intractable obscenity problem" in Interstate Circuit v. Dallas (1968). Appellant Marvin Miller conducted a mass mailing campaign to advertise the sale of illustrated books, euphemistically called "adult" material. Specifically, Miller mailed five advertisements to a restaurant in Newport Beach, California. The envelope was opened by the manager of the restaurant and his mother, who had not requested the brochures, which advertised four books entitled "Intercourse," "Man-Woman," "Sex Orgies Illustrated," and "An Illustrated History of Pornography," as well as a film entitled "Marital Intercourse." While the brochures contain some descriptive printed material, primarily they consist of pictures and drawings very explicitly depicting men and women in groups of two or more engaging in a variety of sexual activities, with genitals often prominently displayed. The recipients complained to the police.

After a jury trial, Miller was convicted of mailing unsolicited sexually explicit material in violation of a California statute that approximately incorporated the obscenity test formulated in Memoirs v. Massachusetts (1966). The Superior Court of California affirmed the judgment without opinion.