In the 1973 case Miller v. California, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed an earlier ruling that obscenity was not protected speech under the First Amendment and could therefore be prohibited. Further, the Court laid down a standard by which all future obscenity cases would be judged. Representing the majority opinion, Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote:
The basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be:
(a) whether “the average person, applying contemporary community standards” would find the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest…,
(b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law, and
(c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
The ruling further instructed that the standard to be used was that of the community in which the case was being tried and that no national standard was needed.
Federal Obscenity Statutes
For exact wording of each statute, follow the links to the online U.S. Code collection.
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 71 - OBSCENITY
Sec. 1460. - Possession with intent to sell, and sale, of obscene matter on Federal property
Sec. 1461. - Mailing obscene or crime-inciting matter
Sec. 1462. - Importation or transportation of obscene matters
Sec. 1463. - Mailing indecent matter on wrappers or envelopes
Sec. 1464. - Broadcasting obscene language
Sec. 1465. - Transportation of obscene matters for sale or distribution
Sec. 1466. - Engaging in the business of selling or transferring obscene matter
Sec. 1467. - Criminal forfeiture
Sec. 1468. - Distributing obscene material by cable or subscription television
Sec. 1469. - Presumptions
Sec. 1470. - Transfer of obscene material to minors
