ABSTRACT
The US Supreme Court in Stanley v. Georgia, 394 US 557, declared that individuals have a right under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitution to possess sexually obscene material in the privacy of their own home. In Stanley, police searching a man's home found obscene films. He was arrested and convicted for violation of a Georgia statute that outlawed the possession of obscene material. He appealed to the US Supreme Court, which overturned his conviction. The Court noted that despite the government's interest in outlawing the public distribution of obscene material, those justifications did not apply to mere private possession in the home. The Supreme Court has never extended the ruling in Stanley v. Georgia to include a right to possess other materials in the privacy of one's home. For example, the Court in Stanley declared its ruling would not extend to drugs, firearms, or stolen goods.
