Home > Great American Court Cases > Massachusetts v. Oakes

Legal Citation: 491 U.S. 576 (1989)

Petitioner
State of Massachusetts

Respondent
Douglas Oakes

Petitioner's Claim
That the conviction of Oakes, who took photographs of his partially nude stepdaughter, should be upheld under a Massachusetts law prohibiting adults from "posing or exhibiting nude minors for purposes of visual representation or reproduction in any book, magazine, pamphlet, motion picture, photograph, or picture."

Chief Lawyer for Petitioner
James M. Shannon, Massachusetts Attorney General

Chief Lawyer for Respondent
Richard J. Vita

Justices for the Court
Harry A. Blackmun, Anthony M. Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor (writing for the Court), William H. Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Byron R. White

Justices Dissenting
William J. Brennan, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, John Paul Stevens