First Amendment Commons^™

Obscenity In The Age Of Direct Broadcast Satellite: A Final Burial For Stanley V. Georgia(?), A National Obscenity Standard, And Other Miscellany, John V. Edwards

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Abstract Principle V. Contextual Conceptions Of Harm: A Comment On R. V. Butler, Jamie Cameron

Articles & Book Chapters

This comment provides a critique of the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in R. v. Butler, which held that section 163(8) of the Criminal Code, defining obscenity, is a reasonable limit on freedom of expression under section 1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Before discussing the Charter, the Court expanded the scope of section 163(8) to include a prohibition against sexually explicit material that is degrading or dehumanizing. Initially, the author is critical of the Court's methodology, which enlarged section 163(8) at the expense of expressive freedom, without even mentioning the Charter. Once the Court had interpreted …

Cracking Down On The Trade In Child Pornography And Pornography For Children: More Prosecutions, Stiffer Sentences And Now, After Osborne V. Ohio, No Place To Hide, Harvey L. Zuckman

St. Thomas Law Review

The life of the child pornographer, while never easy, became increasingly difficult in the 1980s when the federal and state governments cast their full attention on these exploiters of children and their pedophiliac customers. This article will review the law in this area, the legislative and judicial process by which the federal and state government have attempted to stamp out the trade in child pornography particularly in the past decade and the first decision of the Supreme Court in this new decade making it more difficult than ever to store, handle and move such material, even surrepticiously.

National Endowment Of The Art's Controversial Obscenity Regulation And Its Constitutional Ramifications, Jodi Cantor

St. Thomas Law Review

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and analyze the constitutional ramifications of the controversy involving the National Endowment of the Arts. Specifically, the controversy is based on obscenity restrictions on government funding. The paper begins by explaining the purpose and goals behind the National Endowment of the Arts. Next, the controversy itself and the subsequent enactment of the Interior Appropriations bill and its restrictions are discussed. There are several constitutional issues presented. First, it is strongly urged that the Miller v. California 1 test is misplaced in this area. However, assuming that Miller is applicable, an intent-based analysis …

Sex, Lies And Videotape: The Pornographer As Censor, Marianne Wesson

Publications

The legal branch of the women's movement, although of one mind on some subjects, is divided on the proper approach to pornography. Some feminists oppose the imposition of any legal burdens on pornography because they fear that feminist speech will be caught in the general suppression, and others believe that any such burdens must violate the first amendment. Professor Wesson suggests that pornography should be defined to include only those materials that equate sexual pleasure with the infliction of violence or pain, and imply approval of conduct that generates the actor's arousal or satisfaction through this infliction. So defined, pornography …

Regulating Violent Pornography, Deana Pollard

Vanderbilt Law Review

In recent years the regulation of pornography has received much attention. Traditionally, conservatives have scorned pornography of all types on the basis that pornography is immoral. More recently, some feminists have attacked pornography from a civil rights perspective,claiming that pornography is the sexually explicit subordination of women that leads to discrimination against women in all aspects of life. Nonetheless, the first amendment currently protects all forms of pornography from regulation unless the material is deemed "obscene.

"Researchers, however, have shown that certain types of pornography, such as violent, sexually explicit materials, specifically harm women. The proven relationship between violent pornography …

Art, Obscenity And The First Amendment, Judith Bresler

Articles & Chapters

Symposium on Law and the Visual Arts: Art, the First Amendment and the NEA Controversy

The Obscenity Exception: Abusing The First Amendment, Simon Roberts

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

First Amendment, Burt Neuborne

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rico's Forfeiture Provision: A First Amendment Restraint On Adult Bookstores, Ana Maria Marin

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Apologetics Of Suppression: The Regulation Of Pornography As Act And Idea, Steven G. Gey

Michigan Law Review

The first three parts of this article discuss in detail the relationship between the Supreme Court's obscenity rulings and the academic theories that have been offered to bolster the conclusions reached by the Court in this area. Part IV of the article considers a contrary theory of free expression that requires constitutional protection for the dissemination and possession of pornography. In this section I argue that the present efforts to ban pornography are directly linked to a tolerance model of free expression. The tolerance model, which is usually contrasted with an analytical approach characterized by Holmesian skepticism, necessarily relies upon …

Hard-Core Pornography: A Proposal For A Per Se Rule, Bruce A. Taylor

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Article discusses the history and pervasiveness of the pornography problem. Part II explains the current legal test for obscenity, as evolved from Miller v. California, with an emphasis on terms commonly used in the definition of obscenity. Part III examines the problems in applying Miller that suggest that the application of a per se hard-core pornography rule may be appropriate. Finally, Part IV presents a proposal for a per se hard-core pornography rule, similar to child pornography laws existing in many jurisdictions and upheld by the Supreme Court in New York v. Ferber. This Article concludes …

Pornography And Obscenity Sold In "Adult Bookstores": A Survey Of 5132 Books, Magazines, And Films In Four American Cities, Park Elliott Dietz, Alan E. Sears

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

During the eighteen months that the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography (the Commission) conducted public hearings, public discussion, and staff research, one of the most common types of inquiry directed to the staff consisted of questions as to the content of pornography currently available in the United States. Critics of the Commission's work asserted that the pornography used as exhibits by witnesses at the public hearings was extreme, not commonly available, or unrepresentative of that sold in pornography retail outlets; The only pertinent, quantitative data available to the Commission appeared in a single report in the American Journal of Psychiatry …

The Right To Speak, The Right To Hear, And The Right Not To Hear: The Technological Resolution To The Cable/Pornography Debate, Michael I. Meyerson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article concludes that the power of government to regulate cable pornography is limited to that which is legally obscene. Part I reviews Supreme Court cases delineating the relationship between the rights of privacy in the home and of freedom of speech. Part II demonstrates that the technology of cable television provides the solution to the pornography dilemma. Cable television preserves both privacy and speech interests because individual subscribers can be given the physical means to block out programming they find personally offensive without affecting the ability of others to receive that programming. Where such accommodation of interests is permissible, …

The Right To Speak, The Right To Hear, And The Right Not To Hear: The Technological Resolution To The Cable/Pornography Debate, Michael I. Meyerson

All Faculty Scholarship

The advent of cable television presented a new opportunity to consider the competing interests on each side of the free speech/pornography debate. This Article attempts to construct an analysis that will be consistent with Supreme Court teaching on how government, under the first amendment, may constitutionally regulate legal obscenity, particularly in the name of protecting those who wish to avoid exposure to such material.

The Article shows how, unlike earlier battles over technology and pornography, cable television presented the novel opportunity to have a technological rather than a censorial solution to this difficult problem.

Restricting Adult Access To Material Obscene As To Juveniles, Ann H. Coulter

Michigan Law Review

This Note considers whether state regulations that restrict juvenile access to material that is obscene as to minors unconstitutionally encroach upon the first amendment rights of adults. Part I briefly describes the Court's opinion in Ginsberg. Part II introduces the "O'Brien analysis" and discusses the aspects of juvenile access restrictions that tend to make O'Brien scrutiny applicable. In this context the frequently relaxed judicial review of governmental restrictions on sexually related material will be discussed. Having concluded that the O'Brien analysis is applicable to access restrictions, Part III applies the test and ultimately concludes that juvenile access restrictions survive …

Obscenity: The Justices' (Not So) New Robes, Michael Kent Curtis

Campbell Law Review

The first portion of this article examines obscenity regulation both in the federal arena and in North Carolina and looks briefly at how we got to where we are today. The second part examines the current North Carolina statute and the constitutional problems which are inextricably connected with it. The final section considers directions that the courts (or legislature) should take in consideration of the new North Carolina statute.

Obscene Telephone Calls: An Introduction To The Reading Of Statutes, Reed Dickerson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Members of the legal profession continually confront problems of statutory interpretation. Unfortunately, most lawyers have been inadequately trained to read and to draft statutes, resulting in poorly reasoned judicial decisions and policy choices.

In this Article, Professor Dickerson explores common problems associated with statutory interpretation. In exploring these problems, he describes the cognitive process involved in reading a statute and the large fund of tacit assumptions that condition this process. Through a case study analysis, he suggests a method of approaching problems of statutory interpretation.

Problems In Giving Obscenity Copyright Protection: Did Jartech And Mitchell Brothers Go Too Far?, Kurt L. Schmalz

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Recent Development traces in part II the emergence of the rule that obscenity is not copyrightable. Part III then examines the courts' reasoning in Mitchell Brothers and Jartech and analyzes the impact of these cases on copyright law. Part IV finds that although these courts properly vindicate free expression, they fail to recognize adequately the national policy against obscenity and the inconsistency of affording federal copyright protection to materials that violate federal obscenity laws. Thus, this Recent Development argues that the strong national policy against obscenity, as manifested in federal anti-obscenity statutes, requires courts in some cases to deny …

Codifying The First Amendment: New York V. Ferber, Frederick Schauer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Comparison Evidence In Obscenity Trials, Marguerite Munson Lentz

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article critiques the approach endorsed in Hamling, particularly regarding the Court's failure to consider how the presentation of proof in an obscenity trial affects the defendant's constitutional rights. The Article urges that relevant comparison evidence should be admissible despite the risk of confusion or the opportunity to present expert testimony, and furthermore, that a court should be required to make explicit its findings regarding the relevancy of comparison evidence. Part I of the Article demonstrates the constitutional significance to the obscenity defendant of evidence, particularly comparison exhibits, bearing on prevailing community standards. Part II considers the assessment of …

Response: Pornography And The First Amendment, Frederick Schauer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Private Speech And The Private Forum: Givhan V. Western Line School District, Frederick Schauer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Speech And Speech - Obscenity And Obscenity: An Exercise In The Interpretation Of Constitutional Language, Frederick Schauer

Faculty Publications

Commentators have criticized the Supreme Court's use of the "two-level" theory of speech to place obscenity beyond the pale of the first amendment. They charge the Court with shirking the task of balancing first amendment values and the states' interests in regulating obscene material. Professor Schauer meets this criticism by examining the meaning of the word "speech" in the context of the purposes of the first amendment and the Constitution as a whole. He concludes that "speech"does not include a category.of obscenity'that performs the function of a surrogate sexual act and is lacking in communicative content. The Court's treatment of …

Spears V. State, 337 So. 2d 977 (Fla. 1976), John Mueller

Florida State University Law Review

Constitutional Law- SPEECH- FLORIDA'S INDECENT AND OBSCENE LANGUAGE STATUTE DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL ON ITS FACE FOR OVERBREADTH.

Federalism And Obscenity, Robert M. O'Neil

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Civilizing Pornography: The Case For An Exclusive Obscenity Nuisance Statute, Doug R. Rendleman

Faculty Publications

Criminal penalties are increasingly perceived to be too severe for regulating obscenity. Professor Rendleman shares this perception and suggests that we replace criminal obscenity laws with an exclusive civil sanction utilizing injunctions. He proposes a comprehensive nuisance statute and discusses the various issues that arise in the equitable regulation of pornography.

Constitutional Law - Obscenity - 1977 Amendments To The Pennsylvania Obscenity Statute, John P. Kopesky

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Obscenity, The Law And Religion, Thomas A. Long

IUSTITIA

The long history of the relation between Western religion and secular law is both interesting and complex.' In what follows I shall discuss one current social issue which is illustrative of this relation,namely, the relatively recent legal-moral controversy over obscenity.

Defects In Indiana's Pornographic Nuisance Act, Thomas L. Davis

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.