Roth v. United States

Decided June 24, 1957. William Joseph Brennan Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 582 · 354 U.S. 476 (1957) · Cited 3,255 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

Decided 6–3.

“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.

• Beauharnais v. Illinois · 343 U.S. 250 (1952)
• Dennis v. United States · 341 U.S. 494 (1951)
• Ex Parte Jackson · 96 U.S. 727 (1878)
• Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire · 315 U.S. 568 (1942)
• United States v. Harriss · 347 U.S. 612 (1954)
• Winters v. New York · 333 U.S. 507 (1948)
• Schenck v. United States · 249 U.S. 47 (1919)
• United States v. Petrillo · 332 U.S. 1 (1947)
• Rosen v. United States · 161 U.S. 29 (1896)
• Dunlop v. United States · 165 U.S. 486 (1897)
• National Labor Relations Board v. Virginia Electric & Power Co. · 314 U.S. 469 (1941)
• Prince v. Massachusetts · 321 U.S. 158 (1944)
• Thornhill v. Alabama · 310 U.S. 88 (1940)
• Palko v. Connecticut · 302 U.S. 319 (1937)
• Near v. Minnesota Ex Rel. Olson · 283 U.S. 697 (1931)
• United Public Workers of America v. Mitchell · 330 U.S. 75 (1947)
• Kovacs v. Cooper · 336 U.S. 77 (1949)
• Gitlow v. New York · 268 U.S. 652 (1925)
• Cox v. New Hampshire · 312 U.S. 569 (1941)
• Giboney v. Empire Storage & Ice Co. · 336 U.S. 490 (1949)
• Boyce Motor Lines, Inc. v. United States · 342 U.S. 337 (1952)
• Nash v. United States · 229 U.S. 373 (1913)
• Breard v. Alexandria · 341 U.S. 622 (1951)
• Edwards v. California · 314 U.S. 160 (1941)
• Pennsylvania v. Nelson · 350 U.S. 497 (1956)
• Robertson v. Baldwin · 165 U.S. 275 (1897)
• Railway Mail Assn. v. Corsi · 326 U.S. 88 (1945)
• United States v. Wurzbach · 280 U.S. 396 (1930)
• United States v. Ragen · 314 U.S. 513 (1942)
• Hygrade Provision Co. v. Sherman · 266 U.S. 497 (1925)

Cited by

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

• Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton · 413 U.S. 49 (1973)
• A Book Named \John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure\" v. Attorney General of Massachusetts" · 383 U.S. 413 (1966)
• Miller v. California · 413 U.S. 15 (1973)
• Ginzburg v. United States · 383 U.S. 463 (1966)
• United States v. Reidel · 402 U.S. 351 (1971)
• Jacobellis v. Ohio · 378 U.S. 184 (1964)
• Brockett v. Spokane Arcades, Inc. · 472 U.S. 491 (1985)
• Hamling v. United States · 418 U.S. 87 (1974)
• Manual Enterprises, Inc. v. Day · 370 U.S. 478 (1962)
• Stanley v. Georgia · 394 U.S. 557 (1969)
• California v. LaRue · 409 U.S. 109 (1972)
• Interstate Circuit, Inc. v. City of Dallas · 390 U.S. 676 (1968)
• Smith v. California · 361 U.S. 147 (1959)
• Mishkin v. New York · 383 U.S. 502 (1966)
• FW/PBS, Inc. v. City of Dallas · 493 U.S. 215 (1990)
• Ginsberg v. New York · 390 U.S. 629 (1968)
• Smith v. United States · 431 U.S. 291 (1977)
• R. A. v. v. City of St. Paul · 505 U.S. 377 (1992)
• A Quantity of Copies of Books v. Kansas · 378 U.S. 205 (1964)
• United States v. Williams · 553 U.S. 285 (2008)
• Bantam Books, Inc. v. Sullivan · 372 U.S. 58 (1963)
• Kois v. Wisconsin · 408 U.S. 229 (1972)
• New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · 376 U.S. 254 (1964)
• Osborne v. Ohio · 495 U.S. 103 (1990)
• United States v. Thirty-Seven (37) Photographs · 402 U.S. 363 (1971)
• Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union · 535 U.S. 564 (2002)
• Kingsley International Pictures Corp. v. Regents of the University · 360 U.S. 684 (1959)
• Kaplan v. California · 413 U.S. 115 (1973)
• Rabe v. Washington · 405 U.S. 313 (1972)
• Buckley v. Valeo · 424 U.S. 1 (1976)

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).