People v. Billingsley

The defendants Billingsley, Schort and Bloss appeal their convictions of sale and possession for sale of obscene literature.1 The charged offense concerned three books, “Pleasures and Follies”, “Les Enfants Terribles”, and “My Secret Life”. The *12trial judge found that My Secret Life was not obscene and limited the jury’s consideration to the other two books.

The defendants’ main contention on appeal is that the two books are not obscene in the constitutional sense. The phrase “obscene in the constitutional sense” was coined by the United States Supreme Court.2 It serves both to focus attention…