Following the defeat of Germany and Japan during World War II the United States almost immediately became burdened with another challenge, that of, containing their former ally, the Soviet Union. Known as the Cold War, this conflict inspired tremendous technological advances as well as, drastic social changes throughout the world and especially within the United States. The rivalry for global dominance immediately became, perhaps, the single most important factor determining the American, as well as, the global human experience and would remain so for the next fifty years. In just viewing one of these great social changes occurring within the United States at this time, the sexual revolution, which effectively broke down the pre-existing gender roles, sex laws, and the sexual morality of mainstream American society, one may see that this change, though beginning slowly eventually became so great and so widespread that it not only affected American culture, but, also, the legal institutions of the United States as well. The most powerful and therefore, most important such institution, the United States Supreme Court, was no exception, and in fact, was the leader of such legal chan

The 1950’s began with the first armed conflict of the Cold War, that is, the Korean War. Officially known as a United Nations police action, this battle between the communist North Koreans, supported by the Sino-Soviet Bloc, and the capitalist South Koreans, backed by the US and its allies, revealed the extent to which the Cold War would affect US foreign policy, as well as, domestic issues. After fighting to a stalemate along the original border of the 38th parallel, the American public grew weary of the war, resulting in the defeat of the Democratic Party in the election of 1952. This reversed the liberal trend of the Roosevelt and Truman period (1932-1952) This victory for the Republicans, which placed World War II General, Dwight D. Eisenhower as President and a Republican majority in Congress, although briefly, displayed the growing conservative push within the United States and how Cold War responsibilities aided in that drift to the right. Eisenhower served two terms in office and oversaw, perhaps, the most conservative era of the twentieth century, certainly since the pre World War I years.

The “Nuclear Family”, as it was known, consisted of a working father, a homemaking mother, and their 2.3 children, deviance from this structure was rare and when it did occur it was severely frowned upon. This picture of the ideal family resulted in strict gender roles for both men and women, as well as, a repressed American sexuality. Sexual practices were rarely discussed outside the bedroom and sexuality itself was viewed as either unimportant, immoral, or of too sensitive a nature to become part of public discourse. The overwhelming view of sex in this era, at least publicly, was that of a tool used for procreation not recreation. There were those who did challenge these views, namely the Beats, who were the predecessors to the hippies of the 1960’s. Among other non-conformist views, the Beats “rejected monogamous relationships and glorified sexual spontaneity”#, however they were but a tiny minority in an overwhelmingly conformist society.

Similar to the Roth case, Stanley v. Georgia, dealt with the challenge to the constitutionality of obscenity statutes, though in this case it was a Georgian state law. Stanley, the appellant, was served with a search warrant in his home pertaining to his alleged bookmaking activities. While searching the premises police officers found several films, which, were to them, in violation of the state obscenity laws. Stanley was arrested and then convicted in a Georgia court. The decision of the court, in this case, reveals a somewhat still conservative view of sexual freedom, however, a slow liberalization can be seen occurring. In the Roth case, both appellants were charged under prohibitions against the sale and distribution of obscene materials and the court never referred to simple, private possession of such materials. However, as Justice Marshall states in the opinion of the Stanley case, “Roth does declare, seemingly without qualification, that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment”#. This would indicate that, under the opinion of the previous court, there should be no distinction between the sale and possession, that both were legally subject to regulation. Marshall and the other Justices rejected this general principle, stating: “we do not believe that this case can be decided simply by citing Roth.”# Instead they looked to cases where the right to receive information and ideas were found to be protected by the Constitution, they cite Martin v. City of Struthers, Griswold v. Connecticut and several others supporting this conclusion, furthermore, the opinion states that “fundamental is the right to be free, except in very limited circumstances, from unwanted governmental intrusions into one’s privacy”#. With all this in view, the court eventually ruled in favor of the appellant, in a somewhat sentimental statement by Marsh

Some topics in this essay:
Griswold Connecticut, Supreme Court, Reno UCLA, Cold War, Bus Boycott, Amendment Stating, Los Angeles, Stanley Georgia, Continuing Beats, Party Resulting, sexual revolution, supreme court, sexual morality, court ruled, cold war, social changes, stanley georgia, obscene materials, world war, obscenity statutes, stanley georgia 1969, world war ii, drastic social changes, technological advances drastic, advances drastic social,