Atlas for Obscenity: Exploring Community Standards, An
Loading...
Authors
Shugrue, Richard E.
Zieg, Patricia
Issue Date
1974
Type
Journal Article
Language
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
FIRST PARAGRAPH(S)|During the one hundred and fifty years after the adoption of the first amendment, the United States Supreme Court had no occasion to pass on the constitutionality of laws which made obscenity a crime. Since the mid-1950's, however, the Court has been deluged with obscenity cases, and in that relatively short period of time it has confronted the principal questions relating to the problem.: In attempting to define obscenity the Court has unfortunately failed to provide adequate guidelines for determining whether a work is obscene and has thus left inferior courts in a state approaching mass confusion. As recently as 1968, a Michigan judge observed that both the bench and the bar agreed that obscenity law "produces as many views as there are legal minds at work." He also indicated that in the thirteen obscenity cases since Roth v. United States in which signed opinions were delivered, there had been a total of fifty-four separate opinions. |In such a new area of law, perhaps it is inevitable that opinion will he strongly divided, especially where the first amendment is involved. Some argue that obscenity laws are unwarranted intrusions into the fundamental freedoms of speech, press and expression. In a...
Description
Citation
7 Creighton L. Rev. 157 (1973-1974)
Publisher
Creighton University School of Law