Chapter 13

Question 1

Obscenity is ______ protected by the first amendment

Answer 1

Not

Question 2

what are the key challenges in obscenity law?

Answer 2

1. Subjectivity in what’s considered obscene
2. Technological advancements have increased access to adult content.
3. Ethical and legal debates about regulating consensual adult expression.

Question 3

Hicklin rule (pre-1957)

Answer 3

Focus on whether material might corrupt the most vulnerable

Question 4

Roth-Memoirs Test (1957)

Answer 4

Material must:
1. Appeal to purient interest.
2. Be patently offensive.
3. Be utterly without redeeming social value.

Question 5

• The Miller test (1973)

Answer 5

A work is obscene if:
1. An average person applying contemporary local community standards finds it appeals to the prurient interest
2. It depicts sexual conduct in a patently offensive way as defined by state law.
3. It lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

Question 6

Prurient interest.

Answer 6

Shameful/morbid interest in sex, nudity, or excretion

Question 7

community standards

Answer 7

Typically interpreted as statewide standards

Question 8

patent offensiveness

Answer 8

Only hard-core sexual content qualifies

Question 9

serious value

Answer 9

Judged by a reasonable person, not community norms

Question 10

variable obscenity

Answer 10

Different standards for adult vs. minor access.

Question 11

Child pornography

Answer 11

Not protected, even if it doesn’t meet the Miller test

Question 12

PROTECT Act (2003)

Answer 12

Upheld limits on promoting child pornography

Question 13

Sexting Laws

Answer 13

Many states have reduced penalties for consensual youth sexting

Question 14

some feminist argue pornography __________

Answer 14

degrades women and fosters violence

Question 15

Sexually orientated businesses (SOBs)

Answer 15

Like Strip clubs and adult theatres face:
- zoning laws: limit locations
- conduct regulations: distance between dancers and patrons, lighting, etc.

Question 16

Communications Decency Act (1996)

Answer 16

Struck down by SCOTUS in 1997

Question 17

Child Online Protection Act (COPA)

Answer 17

Also struck down: deemed too broad

Question 18

Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA, 2001)

Answer 18

Upheld; libraries must use filters

Question 19

FOSTA (2018)

Answer 19

target online platforms facilitating sex trafficking

Question 20

Nonconsensual Pornography “revenge Porn”

Answer 20

Criminalised in most states

Question 21

Sex offenders and speech

Answer 21

Packingham v. North Carolina struck down blanket bans on accessing social media.

Question 22

Miller v. California. (1973)

Answer 22

Established current three-part obscenity test

Question 23

Roth v. United States (1957)

Answer 23

First major obscenity ruling post-Hicklin

Question 24

Ginsberg v. New York (1968.)

Answer 24

Upheld variable obscenity for minors

Question 25

Packingham v. North Carolina. (2017)

Answer 25

struck down law restricting sex offenders online speech.

Question 26

Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002)

Answer 26

It validated parts of the Child Pornography Prevention Act (CPPA)

Question 27

U.S. v. American library Ass'n (2003)

Answer 27

Upheld filtering requirements under CIPA

Question 28

obscenity

Answer 28

Legally defined, unprotected sexually explicit material

Question 29

indecent material

Answer 29

Sexually graphic, but protected in most contexts

Question 30

Pornography

Answer 30

Broad, cultural term with no legal definition