United States v. Alpers

The question in this case is whether the shipment of obscene phonograph records in interstate commerce is prohibited by § 245 of the Criminal Code, which makes illegal the interstate shipment of any “obscene . . . book, pamphlet, picture, motion-picture film, paper, letter, writing, print, or other matter of indecent character.”

*681Respondent was charged by an information in three counts with knowingly depositing with an express company for carriage in interstate commerce packages “containing certain matter of an indecent character, to-wit: phonograph records impressed with recordings of obscene,…