declaring unconstitutional a city ordinance criminalizing the failure to obtain a license to show pornography
How later courts described this case
- declaring unconstitutional a city ordinance criminalizing the failure to obtain a license to show pornography
- “the constitution does not 21 permit a licensing agency to deny to any citizen the right to exercise one of his 22 fundamental freedoms on the ground that he has abused that freedom in the past.”
- some prior restraints on obscenity valid
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
Finley, J.
(concurring)—As I read the majority opinion, it clearly points out that the instant case does not involve any efforts of the city to proscribe or enforce appropriate licensing standards for theatres regarding fire, sanitation, structural or other hazards affecting the safety and health of members of the public who patronize such places. Standards of this genre are well within the ambit of municipal police power. Unquestionably such standards have been and would be sustained and even encouraged by this court as an exercise of the police power most appropriately in the public interest. The regulation in this case has a distinctly different complexion, or purpose and object. Thus the alarms expressed by the dissent as to health and safety standards and the citation of case and other authorities in support of such standards all seem to be somewhat beside the point to say the least. For these particular reasons and for other reasons well stated therein, I have signed and fully concur in the majority opinion.
Stafford, J., concurs with Finley, J.