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Roaden v. Kentucky, 413 U.S. 496 (1973)
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General SummaryThis case is from a collection containing the full text of over 16,000 Supreme Court cases from 1793 to the present. The body of Supreme Court decisions are, effectively, the final interpretation of the Constitution. Only an amendment to the Constitution can permanently overturn an interpretation and this has happened only four times in American history.
Roaden v. Kentucky, 413 U.S. 496 (1973)
Roaden v. Kentucky No. 71-1134 Argued November 14, 1972 Decided June 25, 1973 413 U.S. 496
CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEALS OF KENTUCKY
Syllabus
A county sheriff viewed a sexually explicit film at a local drive-in theater. At the conclusion of the showing, he arrested petitioner, the theater manager, for exhibiting an obscene film in violation of Kentucky law, and seized, without a warrant, one copy of the film for use as evidence. There was no prior judicial determination of obscenity. Petitioner’s motion to suppress the film as evidence on the ground of illegal seizure was denied, and he was convicted. The Kentucky Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that the concededly obscene film was properly seized incident to a lawful arrest.
Held: The seizure by the sheriff, without the authority of a constitutionally sufficient warrant, was unreasonable under Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment standards. The seizure is not unreasonable simply because it would have been easy to secure a warrant, but rather because prior restraint of the right of expression, whether by books or films, calls for a higher hurdle in the evaluation of reasonableness. Lee Art Theatre v. Virginia, 392 U.S. 636; Marcus v. Search Warrant, 367 U.S. 717. This case does not present an exigent circumstance in which police action must be "now or never" to preserve the evidence of the crime, and where it may be reasonable to permit action without prior judicial approval. Pp. 501-506.
473 S.W.2d 814, reversed and remanded.
BURGER, C.J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which WHITE, BLACKMUN, POWELL, and REHNQUIST, JJ., joined. BRENNAN, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment in which STEWART and MARSHALL, JJ., joined, post, p. 507. DOUGLAS, J., filed a dissenting opinion, ante, p. 494.
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Chicago: U.S. Supreme Court, "Syllabus," Roaden v. Kentucky, 413 U.S. 496 (1973) in 413 U.S. 496 413 U.S. 497. Original Sources, accessed November 24, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=4NMSPKUXPECZEYI.
MLA: U.S. Supreme Court. "Syllabus." Roaden v. Kentucky, 413 U.S. 496 (1973), in 413 U.S. 496, page 413 U.S. 497. Original Sources. 24 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=4NMSPKUXPECZEYI.
Harvard: U.S. Supreme Court, 'Syllabus' in Roaden v. Kentucky, 413 U.S. 496 (1973). cited in 1973, 413 U.S. 496, pp.413 U.S. 497. Original Sources, retrieved 24 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=4NMSPKUXPECZEYI.
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