Kois v. Wisconsin

←

Kois v. Wisconsin (1972)

Syllabus

→

Kois v. Wisconsin, 408 U.S. 229 (1972), was a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of the obscenity conviction of Milwaukee editor-publisher John Kois, whose underground newspaper Kaleidoscope had published two small photographs of pictures of nudes and a sexually-oriented poem entitled "Sex Poem" in 1968. The Supreme Court ruled that, in the context in which they appeared, the photographs were rationally related to a news article which they illustrated and were thus entitled to Fourteenth Amendment protection, and that the poem "bears some of the earmarks of an attempt at serious art" (whether successful or not), and thus was not obscene under the Roth v. United States test ("whether or not the 'dominant' theme of the material appeals to prurient interest").

4636615Kois v. Wisconsin — Syllabus1972

Court Documents

Per Curiam Opinion of the Court

Concurring Opinion: Douglas

Supreme Court of the United States

408 U.S. 229

Kois v. Wisconsin

On Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the Supreme Court of Wisconsin

No. 71-5625. Argued: N/A --- Decided: June 26, 1972

Petitioner was convicted under an obscenity statute for publishing in his underground newspaper pictures of nudes and a sex poem. The State Supreme Court upheld the conviction as not violative of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Held: In the context in which they appeared, the photographs were rationally related to a news article, in conjunction with which they appeared, and were entitled to Fourteenth Amendment protection. In view of the poem's content and placement with other poems inside the newspaper, its dominant theme cannot be said to appeal to prurient interest. Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476.

Certiorari granted; 51 Wis. 2d 668, 188 N.W. 2d 467, reversed.

PER CURIAM.