Home > Great American Court Cases > Jacobellis v. Ohio

Legal Citation: 378 U.S. 184 (1964)

Appellant
Nico Jacobellis

Appellee
State of Ohio

Appellant's Claim
That under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, he should not have been punished for showing The Lovers, a film deemed obscene under Ohio State law.

Chief Lawyer for Appellant
John T. Corrigan

Chief Lawyer for Appellee
Ephraim London

Justices for the Court
Hugo Lafayette Black, William J. Brennan, Jr. (writing for the Court), William O. Douglas, Arthur Goldberg, Potter Stewart, Byron R. White

Justices Dissenting
Tom C. Clark, John Marshall Harlan II, Earl Warren

Place
Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision
22 June 1964

Decision
The film was not obscene and Jacobellis' conviction should be overturned.

Significance
This was a landmark...