{"ID":59456,"name":"Alberts v. California","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/cases\/1956\/61","view_count":0,"docket_number":"61","additional_docket_numbers":null,"manner_of_jurisdiction":"Writ of \u003Ci\u003Ecertiorari\u003C\/i\u003E","first_party":"Alberts","second_party":"California","timeline":[{"event":"Argued","dates":[-400615200],"href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_timeline\/case_timeline\/47268"},{"event":"Decided","dates":[-395175600],"href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_timeline\/case_timeline\/47269"}],"lower_court":null,"facts_of_the_case":"\u003Cp\u003EAlberts conducted a mail-order business which sold sexually explicit materials. He was convicted in a Municipal Court in California on a misdemeanor complaint which found him guilty of selling lewd and obscene books and of composing and publishing an obscene advertisement for his products.\u003C\/p\u003E\n","question":"\u003Cp\u003EDid the California Penal Code\u0027s obscenity provisions, criminalizing the selling and distribution of obscene literature, violate the freedoms of speech and press as guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments?\u003C\/p\u003E\n","conclusion":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Court, speaking through Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. held 6 to 3 that obscenity was not \u0022within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press\u0022 (Brennan would later reverse his position on this issue in Miller v. California (1973)). 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