Page:Gent Magazine v. State.pdf/14

Rh freedom of speech and press, nor that it deprives appellants of their property without due process of law.

The decree is modified to the extent that appellant Gent is made a party to this appeal, and, with such modification, said decree is affirmed.

JusticesJustice [sic] Johnson concurs. Justices George Rose Smith and Robinson dissent.

S R, Associate Justice (dissenting). Not only is it the duty of the United States Supreme Court to uphold the Constitution, but it is the duty of this court, and every court in the land, to support and defend the Constitution. Of course, any document as important as the Constitution has to be construed. It would be utterly impossible to write a Constitution for a great nation that would need no construction by courts of competent jurisdiction, and no one now questions the jurisdiction of the U. S. Supreme Court to construe the Constitution.

The First Amendment, as construed by the U. S. Supreme Court, among other things, protects the freedom of speech and freedom the press. The Supreme Court has construed this Amendment many times but the majority of our court, in the case at bar, has cited only two cases on that point; neither of the cited cases sustain the majority opinion, and no other authority is cited sustaining the majority view. One of the cases cited by the majority is Roth v. U. S., 354 U. S. 476. The facts in the Roth case are not shown, therefore it is not known whether it is analogous with the case at bar.

The other case is Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U. S. 184. There, Jacobellis was convicted in the Ohio courts on two counts of possessing and exhibiting an alleged obscene film in violation of Ohio Statutes. The picture was a French film called "Les Amants" ("The Lovers"). The conviction was reversed by the U. S. Supreme Court. Here, the majority makes no attempt to point out any distinction between the Jacobellis case and the case at