Supreme Court
The decision was appealed to the United States Supreme Court. With a majority of 7-2, they ruled to reverse the decision of the Ninth Circuit and uphold the criminal conviction.
They explained that if a law can be interpreted in a way that is constitutional, then that interpretation must be used rather than declaring the law unconstitutional. In effect, they made the word "knowingly" extend to the other clauses.
Justice Antonin Scalia filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justice Clarence Thomas joined. In Scalia's dissent, he acknowledged this rule but only in cases where the new interpretation does not need an ungrammatical reading of the statute.
Gottesman was incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fort Worth, Texas. Gottesman was released June 27, 1997.
Read more about this topic: United States V. X-Citement Video
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“Henderson: What about Congress and the Supreme Court and the President? We got to pay them, don’t we?
Grandpa: Not with my money, no sir.”
—Robert Riskin (1897–1955)