The U.S. Supreme Court case Fort Wayne Books, Inc. v. Indiana et al., 1988 revolved around the issue of whether a pretrial seizure of materials suspected to be obscene violated the First Amendment rights of free speech and press. The state of Indiana had seized thousands of books and films from three adult bookstores under its RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) law without a prior adversarial hearing on obscenity charges against these materials. In an unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled that such seizures were unconstitutional as they constituted "prior restraint" on free expression protected by the First Amendment unless there was a judicial determination that these materials were indeed obscene in nature before their seizure.

In the dissenting opinion for Fort Wayne Books, Inc. v. Indiana et al., Justice White argued that the majority's decision was too broad and failed to consider important aspects of state law. He contended that while First Amendment protections are crucial, they should not prevent states from using their traditional powers to regulate businesses involved in illegal activities such as obscenity or child pornography. He also disagreed with the majority's view that a full adversarial hearing is necessary before seizing allegedly obscene materials, arguing instead for a more flexible approach based on probable cause standards used in other areas of law enforcement. Furthermore, he criticized the court’s failure to address whether RICO laws could be applied constitutionally against obscenity-related enterprises under any circumstances.