A Quantity of Copies of Books et al. v. Kansas

Decided June 22, 1964. William Joseph Brennan Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 449 · 378 U.S. 205 (1964) · Cited 503 times

We don’t yet publish a summary of this opinion — read the official text below for the Court’s holding and reasoning.

How the Justices voted

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Marcus v. Search Warrant of Property · 367 U.S. 717 (1961)
• Roth v. United States · 354 U.S. 476 (1957)
• Near v. Minnesota Ex Rel. Olson · 283 U.S. 697 (1931)
• Smith v. California · 361 U.S. 147 (1959)
• Kingsley Books, Inc. v. Brown · 354 U.S. 436 (1957)
• Bantam Books, Inc. v. Sullivan · 372 U.S. 58 (1963)
• Beauharnais v. Illinois · 343 U.S. 250 (1952)
• Speiser v. Randall · 357 U.S. 513 (1958)
• Kingsley International Pictures Corp. v. Regents of the University · 360 U.S. 684 (1959)
• Times Film Corp. v. City of Chicago · 365 U.S. 43 (1961)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Heller v. New York · 413 U.S. 483 (1973)
• Roaden v. Kentucky · 413 U.S. 496 (1973)
• Carroll v. President & Commissioners of Princess Anne · 393 U.S. 175 (1968)
• Zurcher v. Stanford Daily · 436 U.S. 547 (1978)
• Alexander v. United States · 509 U.S. 544 (1993)
• Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton · 413 U.S. 49 (1973)
• Mishkin v. New York · 383 U.S. 502 (1966)
• Dyson v. Stein · 401 U.S. 200 (1971)
• Fort Wayne Books, Inc. v. Indiana · 489 U.S. 46 (1989)
• Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth · 408 U.S. 564 (1972)
• Fuentes v. Shevin · 407 U.S. 67 (1972)
• Dombrowski v. Pfister · 380 U.S. 479 (1965)
• Stanley v. Georgia · 394 U.S. 557 (1969)
• Freedman v. Maryland · 380 U.S. 51 (1965)
• Young v. American Mini Theatres, Inc. · 427 U.S. 50 (1976)
• Hicks v. Miranda · 422 U.S. 332 (1975)
• McGautha v. California · 402 U.S. 183 (1971)
• Stanford v. Texas · 379 U.S. 476 (1965)
• Lo-Ji Sales, Inc. v. New York · 442 U.S. 319 (1979)
• United States v. Robel · 389 U.S. 258 (1967)
• Ginzburg v. United States · 383 U.S. 463 (1966)
• Interstate Circuit, Inc. v. City of Dallas · 390 U.S. 676 (1968)
• Kaplan v. California · 413 U.S. 115 (1973)
• New York v. P. J. Video, Inc. · 475 U.S. 868 (1986)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: the U.S. Reports via govinfo.gov; authoring Justice and vote lineup from the Supreme Court Database (Washington University). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).