Ginsberg v. New York was a 1968 Supreme Court of the United States

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

 decision. The Warren Court

Warren Court

The Warren Court refers to the Supreme Court of the United States between 1953 and 1969, when Earl Warren served as Chief Justice. Warren led a liberal majority that used judicial power in dramatic fashion, to the consternation of conservative opponents...

 ruled that material that is not obscene may nonetheless be harmful for children, and its marketing may be regulated.

Background

Under New York Law it was illegal to willfully sell to a minor under 17 any picture which depicts nudity, is harmful to minors and any magazine which taken as a whole is harmful to minors.
Ginsberg and his wife operated Sam's Stationery and Luncheonette in Bellmore, Long Island. In it they sold magazines including those deemed to be "girlie". He was prosecuted from two informants in which he personally sold two 16 year old boys the "girlie" magazines. He was tried in Nassau County District Court and found guilty. The court had found that the pictures were harmful to minors under the law.

The Conviction was upheld by the Appellate Term of the Supreme Court of New York and was denied an appeal to the New York Court of Appeals.

Ginsberg argued before the court that the State of New York did not have the power to classify two different sets of the population in regards to obscene material and that it was an unconstitutional deprivation of liberty. He cited Meyer v. Nebraska

Meyer v. Nebraska

Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 , was a U.S. Supreme Court case that held that a 1919 Nebraska law restricting foreign-language education violated the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.-Context and legislation:...

, Pierce v. Society of Sisters

Pierce v. Society of Sisters

Pierce v. Society of Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, , was an early 20th century United States Supreme Court decision that significantly expanded coverage of the Due Process Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The case has been cited as a precedent in...

 and Prince v. Massachusetts. All where the court sided with the minors.

Opinion of the Court

Justice Brennan delivered the opinion of the court. The court rejected Ginsberg’s argument that New York had deprived minors of their liberty. The court found that it was well within the state’s power to protect minors and that just because the material is not classified as obscene to adults it may still be regulated with minors.

Dissent

Justice Douglas wrote a dissent where he strongly objected to the majority’s decision. He found the First Amendment to be an absolute that harbored no exclusion for the obscenity that the rest of the court had found. While he admitted that the material that had been sold to minors could be harmful, Douglas was concerned that the ruling would set a precedent that could be perpetuated to "protect" other segments of society from anything the government might deem obscene. He finished by saying the definition of obscenity is impossible to determine because it is highly subjective and laments that the court is forced to sit as the nation's board of censors.

See also

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 390
• List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Warren Court
• List of United States Supreme Court cases involving the First Amendment