ruling by the Court of Appeals, and the enormous amount of legal debate it has led to. I will present the history of the case, the ruling of the first trial, and the ruling of the appeal (see Beatty 1991; Butler 1991:368-376; Campbell 1991:177-215; Friedland 1991; Furer 1991:465-469; Gordon 1991:506-517; King 1991:120-140; Morant 1992:16-20; OGallagher and Gaertner 1991:105-110; Olson 1991:515-529; Rogow 1991:243-250; Skywalker v. Navarro 1990a). The record company Skywalker Records released the 2 Live Crew album "As Nasty As They Wanna Be" ("Nasty") in 1989 and simultaneously released a "sanitized" version of the recording called "As Clean As They Wanna Be" (same music, different lyrics). By 1990, sales of the "Nasty" album amounted to about 1.7 million copies, while the Clean album had sold some 250,000 copies. In mid-February of 1990, the Sheriffs office of Broward County, Florida, began an investigation into the "Nasty" recording as a response to complaints by South Florida residents. Broward County Deputy Sheriff Mark Wichner was assigned to the case. On February 26, 1990, he traveled to Sound Warehouse, a record store in Broward County, and bought a cassette version of the "Nasty" recording. He listened to the album, had six of its songs transcribed, and prepared an affidavit stating these facts. On February 28, 1990, Deputy Wichner sent the affidavit, the transcripts, and a copy of the "Nasty" tape to Judge Mel Grossman of the Broward County Circuit Court, requesting that the judge find probable cause that "Nasty" was legally obscene. On March 9, Judge Grossman issued an order, stating that he had found probable cause to believe the recording was obscene. The Broward County Sheriffs office received and copied the order, and distributed it to all record stores that might be selling the album throughout the county. The Sheriffs office had decided to warn the stores as a matter of courtesy (Skywalker v. Navarro 1990a). Then, Deputy...
