miller vs.california

Miller v. California A recurring problem that we have here in the United States is how to define obscenity and to answer the question is the material containing the obscenity protected the First Amendment, stating the freedom of the press provision. Finally one day the Supreme Courts ruled that obscene works are not protect by the constitution but that ruling only caused more problems. How are we to decide whether or not something is obscene; …

…community-to-community standard to be effectively applied. From this case we came up with the new standard stating that obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment and we came up with a way to define obscene material. First, only "hard-core" material could be prohibited. Second, the material must not posses any "serious value." Third, material is to be judged on a community-to-community basis. The Miller criteria today still remains the constitutional test for obscenity.