## Facts

- Ohio filed criminal complaints charging Larry Flynt and others associated with *Hustler* magazine with disseminating obscenity under Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 2907.32 (1975).
- Petitioners moved to dismiss, alleging selective and discriminatory prosecution in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
- The municipal court granted the motions and dismissed the complaints.
- The Ohio Court of Appeals reversed, finding the evidence insufficient to support selective-prosecution allegations, and remanded for trial.
- The Supreme Court of Ohio affirmed the reversal and left the case remanded for trial.
- The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari to consider whether it could review the federal selective-prosecution claim at that stage.

## Issues

1. Whether the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision reversing dismissal of the criminal complaints and remanding for trial was a “final judgment” reviewable by the U.S. Supreme Court under 28 U.S.C. § 1257.

## Decision

- The Court dismissed the writ of certiorari for want of jurisdiction.
- The Court held that the state-court decision was not a final judgment under 28 U.S.C. § 1257 because the prosecution had not concluded.
- The Court held that none of the limited exceptions to the final-judgment rule identified in *Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn* applied.

## Legal Principles

- Under 28 U.S.C. § 1257, the U.S. Supreme Court generally may review only final judgments of a state’s highest court.
- In a state criminal case, finality is normally shown by a conviction followed by imposition of sentence.
- Interlocutory review of nonfinal state judgments is available only in narrow categories; a remand for trial ordinarily remains nonfinal.
- A federal selective-prosecution claim may await state-court final judgment when later review remains available and delay does not impair important federal interests.

## Conclusion

Because the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision merely reinstated the prosecution and remanded for trial—without any conviction or sentence—the U.S. Supreme Court lacked jurisdiction under § 1257 and dismissed the case without reaching the merits of the Equal Protection selective-prosecution claim.


Flynt v. Ohio, 451 U.S. 619 (1981)