The Bookseller Who Hadn't Read It

A bookseller was convicted under a city law that made it a crime to have an obscene book in a bookshop. The law did not require any proof that the shop owner knew what was in the book. An obscene book was found in his store, and he was given a jail sentence. The bookseller argues that punishing a seller who has no idea what a book contains would force shops to stop stocking any book they have not read, cutting the public off from lawful reading.