Obscenity

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The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives citizens freedom of speech rights. This means people can communicate freely through many forms, including writing, photos, film, art and web sites. Even pornography, depicting erotic behavior in photos and film, is protected by the First Amendment. However, there are limits. The First Amendment doesn’t protect child pornography or obscenity. Whether something is obscene or not may depend on who views it. What is considered obscene changes with the culture and the time. The US Supreme Court created a three-part test to help determine what is illegally obscene. The test asks:

- If average person, applying today’s community standards, would find that the work, as a
whole, appeals to the prurient or sexual interest
- If the work shows or describes, in a clearly offensive way, sexual conduct, as defined by state
law where the materials are located
- If the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value

The test relies on community standards. Since state and city communities differ, what’s obscene to courts and juries differs. Most states have state-wide laws against obscenity.

Obscenity

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