''Redrup v. New York'', 386 U.S. 767 (1967), was a May 8, 1967 ruling by the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

, widely regarded as the end of

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

censorship of written fiction. Robert Redrup was a Times Square newsstand clerk who sold two of

William Hamling William Hamling (10 August 1912 – 20 March 1975) was a British Labour Party politician. Hamling was educated at Liverpool University and was a signals officer in the Royal Marines during World War II. Hamling contested Southport in 1945, ...

Greenleaf Classics William Lawrence Hamling (June 14, 1921 – June 29, 2017) was an American writer, science fiction fan, and publisher of both science fiction digests, and adult magazines and books, active from the late 1930s until 1975. He was a lifelong me ...

paperback pulp sex novels, ''Lust Pool'' and ''Shame Agent'', to a plainclothes police officer. He was tried and convicted in 1965. With financial backing from Hamling, Redrup appealed his case to the Supreme Court where his conviction was overturned by 7–2. The court's final ruling affirmed that written materials that were neither sold to minors nor foisted on unwilling audiences were constitutionally protected, thereby ''de facto'' ending American censorship of written material. After this decision, the Supreme Court systematically and summarily reversed, without further opinion, scores of obscenity rulings involving paperback sex books.

"Redrupping"

The Court's decision came at a time when the Justices were unable to agree upon a single, workable test regarding what would constitute obscenity. For example, Justice Stewart's belief that hard-core pornography should be covered by obscenity law, even if he was unable to state a clear definition for what exactly constituted "hard-core" material, was summed up with his notorious expression: " I know it when I see it." Accordingly, the Court adopted a process by which each justice would review the material in question and determine, according to their own understanding, whether or not it constituted obscenity. To do this, the Justices would gather in a conference room in the

U.S. Supreme Court Building The Supreme Court Building houses the Supreme Court of the United States. Also referred to as "The Marble Palace," the building serves as the official workplace of the chief justice of the United States and the eight associate justices of th ...

to watch the films being challenged by obscenity cases. This process was referred to in lawyer's slang as "redrupping." Justices

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and Black did not attend these screenings; both men took an absolutist, anti-censorship approach towards the First Amendment and did not believe that any films should be banned. Justice Burger also preferred not to go. Justice

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, whose eyesight was deteriorating in old age, would sit closest to the screen in order to see the outlines of what was happening on-screen, and often required clerks or fellow Justices to describe the action. The "redrupping" era came to an end with the 1973 decision ''

Miller v. California ''Miller v. California'', 413 U.S. 15 (1973), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court modifying its definition of obscenity from that of "utterly without socially redeeming value" to that which lacks "serious literary, artistic, politi ...

'', which laid down the three-prong standard known as the Miller test for obscenity.

References

External links

* * United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Warren Court United States obscenity case law 1967 in United States case law History of literature in the United States {{SCOTUS-stub

"Redrupping"

See also

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External links