Sharp v. Texas
Headline: Court vacates a Texas obscenity conviction and remands for reconsideration under new Supreme Court obscenity rules, requiring lower courts to reapply updated standards to films and state prosecutions.
Holding: The Court vacated the Texas conviction and remanded the case for reconsideration under its recent obscenity decisions, requiring lower courts to apply those new standards.
- Requires lower courts to re-evaluate obscenity convictions under updated Supreme Court standards.
- May limit states’ ability to ban sexually explicit films not shown to minors.
- Leaves seizure-law challenges (property taken by police) for later review.
Summary
Background
An individual was convicted in Texas for showing a motion picture that the State called obscene under Texas Penal Code Art. 527, § 3 (Supp. 1973). The statute described “obscene” material as having a prurient theme, being patently offensive to community sexual standards, and being utterly without redeeming social value; it also defined “prurient interest.” The film was seized under a separate provision, § 9, and the conviction came from a state criminal appeal that reached the Court.
Reasoning
The Court vacated the judgment and sent the case back to the Texas court for further consideration in light of several recent Supreme Court obscenity decisions, signaling that the lower court must re-examine the film under those new standards. Justice Brennan, joined by Justices Stewart and Marshall, dissented and argued that, except for materials distributed to minors or shown to nonconsenting adults, the First and Fourteenth Amendments bar wholesale suppression of sexually oriented materials. Brennan stated that the word “obscene” as defined in § 3 is unconstitutionally overbroad and would declare the provision facially invalid and remand for proceedings consistent with his view. Justice Douglas separately said he would have reversed the conviction, believing state obscenity regulation is prohibited.
Real world impact
Lower courts and prosecutors must reassess similar film prosecutions using the Court’s recent obscenity rulings. The decision is not a final ruling on the film’s guilt or on seizure rules, and challenges to the statute’s other provisions (like the seizure law) were not resolved here.
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