How has the Court defined obscenity?
The Court offered its most recent definition in 1973. In Miller v. California, the Court held that pornographic works “taken as a whole, appeal to the prurient interest in sex . . . portray sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, and . . . as a whole, do not have serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.” Among the more important details within this ruling was that the judge and jury could apply local community standards in applying these criteria.
