Decision
The MANual Enterprises Court was significantly divided. Since the 1957 decision in Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476 (1957), the Court had struggled to define and refine its approach to obscenity. The widely divergent opinions in MANual Enterprises may reflect those divisions.
The majority opinion was written by Justice John Marshall Harlan II, and joined by Justice Potter Stewart. Justice Hugo Black, who took an absolutist approach to First Amendment jurisprudence, concurred in the result but did not join the opinion. Justice Black did not issue an opinion of his own.
Justice William Brennan, joined by Chief Justice Earl Warren and Justice William O. Douglas, concurred but would have decided the case on much narrower technical rather than First Amendment grounds.
Only Justice Tom C. Clark dissented.
Read more about this topic: MANual Enterprises V. Day
Famous quotes containing the word decision:
“The decision to feed the world
is the real decision. No revolution
has chosen it. For that choice requires
that women shall be free.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)
“Our decision about energy will test the character of the American people and the ability of the President and the Congress to govern this nation. This difficult effort will be the “moral equivalent of war,” except that we will be uniting our efforts to build and not to destroy.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)