re: #54 dog philosopher

Obscenity

A category of speech unprotected by the First Amendment.

A comprehensive, legal definition of obscenity has been difficult to establish. Yet key components of the current obscenity test stem from a District Court case tried in 1933. United States v. One Book Called “Ulysses” 5 F. Supp. 182 (S.D.N.Y 1933), aff’d United States v. One Book Entitled Ulysses by James Joyce, 72 F2d 705 (2nd Cir. 1934) determined that a work investigated for obscenity must be considered in its entirety and not merely judged on its parts.

Currently, obscenity is evaluated by federal and state courts alike using a tripartite standard established by Miller v. California 413 U.S. 15 (1973). The Miller test for obscenity includes the following criteria: (1) whether ‘the average person, applying contemporary community standards’ would find that the work, ‘taken as a whole,’ appeals to ‘prurient interest’ (2) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law, and (3) whether the work, ‘taken as a whole,’ lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

bryan has a problem here in that 1) obscenity and profanity are not the same thing, and 2) his standards are abnormal, not ‘contemporary community standards’

His bigger problem is that he’s advocating this country become more like Putin’s Russia.