Obscenity

About

Obscenity means having the character or quality of being indecent or lewd.

U.S. Obscenity Law

The basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be: (a) whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

Cases

Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union 521 U.S. 844 (“ACLU I”) -1997 -addressed obscenity in the field of new media -challenged Communications Decency Act (CDA) -Congress passed the Child Online Protection Act (COPA)

Ashcroft v. Civil Liberties Union (00-1293) 535 U.S. 564 (2002) 217 F.3d 162 (“ACLU II”) -upheld the Constitutionality of COPA and deemed its use of 'community standards’ to identify ‘material that is harmful to minors’ acceptable practice under the first amendment

References

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/obscenity https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/obscenity