United States v. Stevens | |
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Argued October 6, 2009 Decided April 20, 2010 | |
Full case name | United States v. Robert J. Stevens |
Docket no. | 08-769 |
Case history | |
Prior | Motion to dismiss denied, No. 2:04-cr-00051-ANB (W.D. Pa. Nov. 10, 2004); defendant convicted; vacated, 533 F.3d 218 (3d Cir. 2008); cert. granted, 556 U.S. 1181 (2010). |
Holding | |
Depictions of animal cruelty are not categorically unprotected by the First Amendment. | |
Court membership | |
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Case opinions | |
Majority | Roberts, joined by Stevens, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor |
Dissent | Alito |
Laws applied | |
U.S. Const. amend. I; 18 U.S.C. § 48 |
United States v. Stevens, 559 U.S. 460 (2010), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled that 18 U.S.C. § 48,[1] a federal statute criminalizing the commercial production, sale, or possession of depictions of cruelty to animals, was an unconstitutional abridgment of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
After this ruling, the statute was revised by the Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act of 2010 to have much more specific language indicating it was intended only to apply to "crush videos."