Obscenity
Any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time.
- Obscenity500 related topics
Lenny Bruce
American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist.
His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon in 2003.
Miller v. California
Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court modifying its definition of obscenity from that of "utterly without socially redeeming value" to that which lacks "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value."
Howl (poem)
Poem written by Allen Ginsberg in 1954–1955 and published in his 1956 collection Howl and Other Poems.
Upon the poem's release, Ferlinghetti and the bookstore's manager, Shigeyoshi Murao, were charged with disseminating obscene literature, and both were arrested.
Miller test
The Miller test, also called the three-prong obscenity test, is the United States Supreme Court's test for determining whether speech or expression can be labeled obscene, in which case it is not protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and can be prohibited.
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Last novel, by English author D. H. Lawrence, which was first published privately in 1928, in Italy, and in 1929, in France.
The book was also banned for obscenity in the United States, Canada, Australia, India and Japan.
D. H. Lawrence
English writer and poet.
Both novels were highly controversial and were banned on publication in the UK for obscenity, although Women in Love was banned only temporarily.
Freedom of speech
Principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction.
Freedom of speech and expression, therefore, may not be recognized as being absolute, and common limitations or boundaries to freedom of speech relate to libel, slander, obscenity, pornography, sedition, incitement, fighting words, classified information, copyright violation, trade secrets, food labeling, non-disclosure agreements, the right to privacy, dignity, the right to be forgotten, public security, and perjury.
Potter Stewart
American lawyer and judge who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1958 to 1981.
In the obscenity case of Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964), Stewart wrote in his short concurrence that "hard-core pornography" was hard to define, but that "I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that."
Henry Miller
American novelist.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in Grove Press, Inc., v. Gerstein, citing Jacobellis v. Ohio (which was decided the same day in 1964), overruled the state court findings of obscenity and declared the book a work of literature; it was one of the notable events in what has come to be known as the sexual revolution.
Constitution of Oregon
Governing document of the U.S. state of Oregon, originally enacted in 1857.
Later in 1987, the court cited this provision when it abolished the state's obscenity statute in State v. Henry.