Term
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Definition
- no first amendment protection
- own category-separate from pornography & indecency
- even though obscene content is in the same circle with pornography and indecency, it doesn't overlap with the circle that guarantees first amendment protection
- Miller v. California
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Term
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Definition
- 1973 Supreme Court Case that decided what is obscene
- 3 part test
- an average person applying contemporary community standards, finds the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest (determined by a jury)
- the work depicts in a patently offensive way sexual conduct specifically defined by state law (determined by a jury)
- the work in question lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value (determined by a judge)
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Term
| other court cases - obscenity |
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Definition
- Luke Records v. Navarro
- 2 live crew's album As Nasty as They Want to Be accused of being obscene
- initially ruled as obscene but later overturned on grounds of community standards and artistic merit
- US v. Williams
- interplay between First Amendment rights and the constitutionality of the PROTECT Act -which prohibits knowingly advertising, promoting, presenting, distributing or soliciting material in a manner that reflects the belief, or is intended to cause another to believe, that the material is illegal child pornography; is it overly broad and impermissibly vague?
- No- it is neither overbroad nor unconstitutionally vague
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Term
| special circumstances of obscenity |
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Definition
- variable obscenity statutes
- definition of "obscenity" can vary depending on who it is distributed to (ex.- products aimed at children under 18)
- can't do away w/ adult access to material defined as obscene for children under 18 solely for the purpose of keeping them away from it
- Child pornography- children portrayed in sexual situations (criminal punishment and no 1st amendment protection)
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Term
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Definition
- denies 1st amendment protection of Child Pornography
- established that you can be criminally punished for creating, publishing, or posessing it
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Term
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Definition
- C. MacKinnon (U. Michigan Law)- "It is what happens to make porn & what happens through its use that are the problem."
- process of making porn, not necessarily the ideas, is the problem --> women are sexually exploited
- increased male aggression toward women as result
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Term
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Definition
- N. Strossen (ACLU)- "...censoring seual expression would actuall do more harm than good to women's rights and safety."
- restriction/violation of 1st amendment rights is contradictory to the social advancement of women
- limits ability of woment to express themselves sexually
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Term
| solutions for controlling obscenity |
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Definition
- criminal penalties (scienter- guilty knowledge) for producer/distributor of material
- civil nuisance laws- judge can issue injunction to stop ciruculation of material that has been declared obscene
- RICO statutes (Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act)- govt. has right to seize property and $ gained in violation of circulating material that had already been declared obscene
- postal regulations- illegal to send obscene material via U.S. postal service
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Term
| solutions for controlling non-obscene material |
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Definition
- controlling sexual content (pornography/indecency)
- zoning laws
- incidental restrictions on expression
- display laws
- industry self-regulation
- cutting funding
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Term
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Definition
- limit adult businesses to one part of town
- can't be w/i a certain proximity of one another
- regulations on proximity of adult businesses to schools, churches, playgrounds, etc.
- criteria for constitutional zoning
- can't completely bar or significantly reduce the # of adult businesses (must have specific definition of what an adult business is)
- must have a substantial state interest- secondary effects (not just content issues)
- ordinance must be narrowly drawn- can't restrict more speech than is necessary to address secondary effects
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Term
| incidental restrictions on expression |
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Definition
- one way of controlling non-obscene content
- Erie v. Pap's A.M. (2000)
- ordinance requires nude dancers to wear pasties and g-string (costume) to avoid drunks, drug users, and "seeming people"
- upheld by S.C.; opinion issued by Justice O'Connor
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Term
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Definition
- one way of controlling non-obscene content
- must be displayed where minors can't see/access it
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Term
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Definition
- one way of controlling non-obscene content
- used to avoid govt. regulation
- ex.- rating codes, explicit material labels
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Term
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Definition
- one way of controlling non-obscene content
- especially done in arts and humanities (budget cuts)
- endowments must consider standards of American decency when they give out thier grans to artists
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Term
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Definition
- "Expression that attacks individuals or groups because of their race, ethnic background, religion, gender, or sexual preference."
- How should legal system handle it?
- other countries
- "more speech" solution vs. harmful impact
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Term
| current legal framework for hate speech |
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Definition
- Fighting word's doctrine- expression so offensive as to "have a driect tendency to cause acts of violence by the person to whom...the remark is addressed."
- not protected expression
- expression of bigotry protected as political speech
- VA v. Black- cross burning is violent form of expression; plaintiff has B.O.P. to show that cross was burned as form of intimidation and not just symbolic expression
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