New York v. P. J. Video, Inc. (1985)
- Docket
- 85-363
- Decided
- 1985-01-01
Summary
Question: If a warrant is issued for the seizure of items that can be considered as mediums of speech, does the First Amendment require this warrant to satisfy a "higher" level of proof for probable-cause than warrants issued for other forms of evidence? Conclusion: No. Justice William H. Rehnquist delivered the opinion for a 6-3 court. The Court determined that the police department did not discriminate based on content. It seized the videos in order to preserve evidence rather than to suppress speech. In nondiscriminatory cases, the Court held that the same test for preventing Fourth Amendment wrongful search violations also secured against First Amendment free speech violations. Particularly, "the First Amendment should be evaluated under the same probable-cause standard used to review warrant applications." The officers met this standard by describing content in the videos that clearly violated the obscenity statutes.