Vance v. Universal Amusement Co.

A Texas statute treated distribution of obscene material as a public nuisance enforceable by injunction, allowing a trial judge to issue an ex parte temporary restraining order and, upon a showing of probable success, a temporary injunction against future exhibition of a film — all without any final determination that the material was actually obscene, and with no mechanism to expedite that final determination. King Arts Theatre (plaintiff), whose lease was terminated after the county attorney (defendant) sought such relief for showing allegedly obscene films, sued for an injunction against the county attorney's action; the district court held the statute an unconstitutional prior restraint, the court of appeals initially reversed but then reversed itself again on rehearing, and the state appealed.