Back in 1970, a UK gallery displaying several drawings by John Lennon was prosecuted by the crown for supposedly violating an obscenity statute by publicly showing Lennon’s work. The case was thrown out on a technicality, and was chalked up to overzealous prosecution. But new documents released by the National Archives show that the case against Lennon’s art could have been much more serious, had not the prosecutor been alerted to the potentially wider implications of such a prosecution, and reconsidered, lest his actions lead to a nationwide precedent of censorship.