[1] Smith v. California continued the Supreme Court precedent of ruling that questions of freedom of expression were protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment from invasion by state action.

The era saw the rise of McCarthyism, where techniques as undemocratic as guilt by association, indiscriminate violation of privacy and unsupported accusations were used to censor the general population.

The appellant appealed on the grounds that if the law were in fact constructed this way, it would come into conflict with the Due Process Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The court found that the city ordinance that held Mr. Smith criminally liable was in violation of the freedom of the press, which was protected under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Further, the court found that the higher difficulty of restricting distribution of obscene material (because the bookseller is not criminally liable) was not reason enough to require a different decision.

Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson (1952), and Grosjean v. American Press Co. (1936) affirmed that the free publication of books or other forms of printed word also fell under the protection of the Due Process Clause.

Dennis v. United States (1951) found that "The existence of a mens rea is the rule of, rather than the exception to, the principles of Anglo-American criminal jurisprudence."

Smith v. California set the precedent of the necessity of the inclusion of the scienter in obscenity statutes, and in doing so it further established that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment would stand to protect freedom of expression from state interference.

This decision made it safe and easy for book distributors to continue to disseminate the highest amount of written material that they could, which benefitted the general public by giving them access to as much as possible.

As more and more case decisions have followed the same precedents of protecting freedom of expression that Smith v. California did, the issue of obscenity has become less significant in the United States today.