her
the books were obscene under the Pennsylvania statute.

"For once the publishers took the offensive. Houghton Mifflin Company,
publisher of _Raintree County_, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., publisher of
_Never Love a Stranger_, and The Vanguard Press, Inc., publisher of
books by James T. Farrell and Calder Willingham among those seized,
commenced actions in the Federal District Court in Philadelphia to
restrain further police seizures of these books and to recover damages
from the police officers for their unlawful acts. In these two actions
the authors Harold Robbins and James T. Farrell, as well as Charles
Praissman, a courageous bookseller whose stores had been raided, joined
the publishers as parties plaintiff. The District Attorney of
Philadelphia countered by commencing criminal proceedings against five
of the booksellers whose stores had been raided, and on June 30, 1948
the grand jury, upon presentation of the District Attorney, indicted the
booksellers on a charge of having violated the Pennsylvania statute
prohibiting the sale of obscene books.

"In the meantime the Federal court cases brought by the publishers has
come to trial before Judge Guy K. Bard, and at the conclusion of the
trials Judge Bard had enjoined further seizures of the plaintiff's
books, as well as police invasion of Praissman's stores or seizure of
his books without a warrant. At the time of this writing, the Federal
court cases have not been finally decided.

"On January 3, 1949 the criminal cases came on for trial before Judge
Curtis Bok of the Pennsylvania Court of Quarter Sessions. The defendants
pleaded not guilty and waived trial by jury. They stipulated that at the
times and places mentioned in the indictments they had had possession of
the books for the purpose of offering them for sale to the public. The
books were then placed in evidence, and the prosecution rested its case.
The defendants 'demurred to the evidence,' the effect of which was to
raise the issue of whether the court, in the light of the constitutional
guaranty of freedom of the press, could hold, beyond a reasonable doubt,
that the books before it were obscene within the meaning of the
Pennsylvania obscenity statute." Introductory note to a republication by
Alfred Knopf Inc. of Judge Bok's opinion in Commonwealth _v._ Gordon _et
al._, 66 D & C (Pa.) 101 (1949).

On March 18, 1949 Judge Bok sustained the demurrers and entered judgment
in favor of the defendants. The op