Hicks v. Miranda

After police seized copies of a film from a theater and the local district attorney criminally charged two theater employees, an Orange County court separately declared the film obscene in a proceeding the theater owners (plaintiffs) refused to participate in; rather than appeal that state ruling, the owners sued in federal court days later, challenging the obscenity statute's constitutionality and seeking an injunction and return of the film. Only after the federal complaint was served did the state prosecutor amend the pending criminal complaint to add the theater owners themselves as defendants with new conspiracy counts, and a three-judge federal panel ultimately struck down the obscenity statute and ordered the film's return; the Supreme Court granted certiorari.