41.4 So what has it got to do with alt.sex.movies?
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This article is from the Sex Movies FAQ, by director@gti.net (The Director) with numerous contributions by others.
41.4 So what has it got to do with alt.sex.movies?
The most direct violation of the first amendment is of paramount
concern to the readers of a.s.m. is the legal notion of obscenity.
It is the child of _Roth_v._United_States_, a 1957 Supreme Court
decision. Justice William Brennan, writing the majority opinion,
stated "obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally
protected speech or press". Justice Brennan wasn't a fool; he knew
that he would be asked to define obscenity (to be fair to the man,
he has since repented of writing the above mentioned opinion) but
his attempted fix is laughable:
[A work is obscene if, to the] "average
person, applying contemporary community
standards, the dominant theme of the material
taken as a whole appeals to prurient
interest."
And that vague, broad description is the law of the land in the
land of the free.
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