Obscenity Lecture Notes

Flashcards about Obscenity

Obscenity

A legal term; appeals to "prurient" interests, unlike indecency.

Prurient

Marked by or arousing an immoderate or unwholesome interest or desire.

Four-letter words (in music)

Can have artistic value when understood in context.

Bruce Rogow

Argued that a transcript is an artificial representation of a performance.

Luther Campbell

Leader of 2 Live Crew, faced obscenity charges.

United States Supreme Court Standard (Obscenity)

Supreme Court standard for obscenity includes appealing to prurient interests, violating community standards, and lacking serious artistic merit.

Governor Martinez

Publicly denounced the 2 Live Crew recording as obscene.

Jack Thompson

Evangelical Christian lawyer who campaigned against the album.

Sheriff Navarro

Said he was just an enforcement officer, not anti-rap.

Obscene Material

Material is not protected by the First Amendment.

Child Pornography

Has no literary, artistic, political, or scientific value and is not protected by the First Amendment.

Obscenity cases

Cases that can carry criminal penalties.

Comstock Act 1873

Criminalized publication/distribution of information about abortion/contraception.

Anthony Comstock

Postal Inspector General during the Comstock Era

Key Comstock Concept

Government controlled the mails and interstate commerce.

Hicklin Test (British, 1868)

Publication was obscene if any portion could “deprave and corrupt”.

Alberts v. California (1957)

Obscenity is not protected speech.

Roth Test (1957)

U.S. Supreme Court devised this test encompassing average person, contemporary community standards, material taken as a whole, and appeal to prurient interests.

Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964)

Laws are constitutionally limited to hard-core pornography.

Miller v. California (1973)

Current test for obscenity that includes prurient interest, patently offensive depiction of sexual conduct, and lack of serious value.

George Carlin

Seven Dirty Words that You Cannot Say on TV or Radio.

Reno v. ACLU (1997)

The CDA places an unacceptably heavy burden on protected speech.

Minnesota Law: Access to Library Materials and Rights Protection

Preventing public libraries, University libraries and libraries in public and charter schools from removing reading material based on messages or opinions the book conveys.