Brockett v. Spokane Arcades

In Brockett v. Spokane Arcades, 472 U.S. 491, 501, 105 S.Ct. 2794, 86 L.Ed.2d 394 (1985), a plaintiff claimed that an obscenity statute was overbroad as it defined "prurient interest" to include an incitement to "lasciviousness or lust." Id. at 494, 105 S.Ct. 2794. The plaintiff claimed that "lust" included normal sexual interest, and therefore the statute was constitutionally overbroad, to which the lower court agreed in granting an injunction against the enforcement of the statute. Id. at 494, 105 S.Ct. 2794. However, the Supreme Court reversed the injunction since the remedy itself was too broad. The Supreme Court held that even if a proper narrowing construction could not be given to the word "lust," the lower court should have excised the offending word alone since the statute as a whole was constitutional. Id. at 504-05, 105 S.Ct. 2794.