Butler v. Dexter

Background

The dispute involves Richard Dexter, who ran the Fiesta Theatre in San Antonio and showed the film "Deep Throat" in mid-1974. On three occasions a police officer bought a ticket, watched the film, and sought a magistrate's view. Each magistrate issued warrants to seize the film and the theater's ordinary 16‑mm projector and the State charged Dexter with a misdemeanor commercial-obscenity offense and a felony for possessing a "criminal instrument" under Texas law. The felony charge could bring years in prison and large bonds; these felony charges were never presented to a grand jury.

Reasoning

The federal District Court concluded that the Texas "criminal instrument" statute could not reasonably apply to a common portable movie projector. The court found the felony charges were filed in bad faith and used as a pretext to harass Dexter by forcing high felony bonds. Because the District Court's injunction rested on that finding — not on a substantial constitutional attack on the statute itself — the Supreme Court held that a three-judge district court was not required for such claims and that the Supreme Court lacked jurisdiction for a direct appeal.

Real world impact

The result sends this dispute back to the District Court to enter a fresh decree so a timely appeal may be taken to the Court of Appeals. It leaves the state prosecutions and the underlying misdemeanor charges outside the Supreme Court's immediate review, and it emphasizes that mere complaints about improper enforcement do not automatically present a substantial constitutional question.