Redrup v. New York
United States Supreme Court
386 U.S. 767 (1967)
Three separate cases were consolidated for review: Redrup (defendant) was convicted for selling two books at a New York newsstand; Austin (defendant) was convicted for selling two magazines at a Kentucky bookstore; and Arkansas obtained a civil judgment declaring several magazines obscene and ordering their destruction. The Supreme Court had granted review specifically to consider narrower legal questions — the scienter requirement in obscenity prosecutions for Redrup and Austin, and the constitutionality of Arkansas's anti-obscenity statute for the Arkansas case — rather than to directly assess whether the materials themselves were obscene.
Whether the Supreme Court may decide that a state court judgment was unconstitutional on a substantive ground it did not previously agree to consider or hear argument on from the parties.