The Miller test is the United States Supreme Court's test for determining whether speech or expression can be labeled obscene, in which case it is not protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and can be prohibited. Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Counties, Cities, and Towns Other countries Politics Portal      The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest judicial body in the... Obscenity has several connotations. ... The Bill of Rights in the National Archives The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is a part of the United States Bill of Rights. ...

The Miller test was developed in the 1973 case Miller v. California^[1]. It has three parts: Year 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. ... Holding Obscene materials are defined as those that the average person, applying contemporary community standards, find, taken as a whole, appeal to the prurient interest; that depict or describe, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law; and that, taken as a whole, lack serious...

• Whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest,
• Whether the work depicts/describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions ^[2] specifically defined by applicable state law,
• Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, and scientific value.

The third condition is also known as the (S)LAPS test ((Serious) Literary, Artistic, Political, Scientific). The work is considered obscene only if all three conditions are satisfied. Old book bindings at the Merton College library. ... The Bath, a painting by Mary Cassatt (1844–1926). ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. ... Part of a scientific laboratory at the University of Cologne. ...

For legal scholars, several issues are important. One is that the test allows for community standards rather than a national standard. What offends the average person in Mobile, Alabama, may differ from what offends the average person in New York City. The relevant community, however, is not defined. Nickname: Coordinates: , Country US State Alabama County Mobile Founded 1702 Incorporated 1814 Government  - Mayor Sam Jones Area  - City 412. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ...

Another important issue is that Miller asks for an interpretation of what the "average" person finds offensive, rather than what the more sensitive persons in the community are offended by, as obscenity was defined by the previous test, the Hicklin test, stemming from the English precedent. The Hicklin test is a legal concept, from the 1868 English case - Regina v. ...

Because it allows for community standards and demands "serious" value, some worried that this test would make it easier to suppress speech and expression. They pointed out that it replaced a stricter test asking whether the speech or expression was "utterly without redeeming social value"--a much tougher standard than "serious" value. As used, however, the test generally makes it difficult to outlaw any form of expression. Much pornography has been successfully argued to have some artistic or literary value. Pornographic movies Pornography (Porn) (from Greek πόρνη (porne) prostitute and γραφή (grafe) writing), more informally referred to as porn or porno, is the explicit representation of the human body or sexual activity with the goal of sexual arousal. ...

Some critics of obscenity law argue that the existence of Miller proves that federal obscenity laws are in fact not defined, and thus unenforceable and legally dubious. ^[3][4]

In practice, pornography showing genitalia and sexual acts is not de facto obscene according to the Miller test. For instance, in 2000 a jury in Provo, Utah took only a few minutes to clear Larry Peterman, owner of a Movie Buffs, in Utah County, Utah, a region which had often boasted of being one of the most conservative areas in the US. Researchers had shown that guests at the local Marriott Hotel were disproportionately large consumers of pay-per-view pornographic material, obtaining far more material that way than the store was distributing ^[5][6]. 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Panoramic view of Provo Provo is a city in Utah and the county seat of Utah County, located about 50 miles south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. ... Utah County is a county located in the U.S. state of Utah. ... Marriott International, Inc. ... Pay-per-view is the name given to a system by which television viewers can call and order events to be seen on TV and pay for the private telecast of that event to their homes later. ... Pornography (from Greek πορνογραφια pornographia — literally writing about or drawings of harlots) is the representation of the human body or human sexual behaviour with the goal of sexual arousal, similar to, but (according to some) distinct from, erotica. ...

The advent of the Internet has made this definition more difficult to maintain: as material published on a web server in one place can be read by a person residing anywhere else, there is a question as to which jurisdiction should apply. The pending case United States of America v. Extreme Associates includes some content delivered purely over the Internet and may clarify the situation. The inside/front of a Dell PowerEdge web server The term Web server can mean one of two things: A computer that is responsible for accepting HTTP requests from clients, which are known as Web browsers, and serving them HTTP responses along with optional data contents, which usually are Web... Robert D. Zicari a. ...

See also

• Artistic merit
• Lady Chatterley's Lover
• Literary merit
• Jack Thompson

Artistic merit is an English language term that is used in relation to cultural products when referring to the judgment of their perceived quality or value as works of art. ... Lady Chatterleys Lover is a novel by D. H. Lawrence written in 1928. ... Literary Merit a written text has Liteary Merit if it is a work of quality, that is if it has some aesthetic value. ... For other persons of the same name, see Jack Thompson and John Thompson. ...

References

1. ^ *Text of the decision and dissents, from findlaw.com
2. ^ The syllabus of the case mentions only sexual conduct, but excretory functions are explicitly mentioned on page 25 of the majority opinion.
3. ^ There is no Such Thing as Obscenity. The Ethical Spectacle (February 1996).
4. ^ Huston, William A.. Under Color of Law: Obscenity vs. the First Amendment (PDF) 75-82.
5. ^ Egan, Timothy (2000-10-23). Wall Street Meets Pornography. New York Times.
6. ^ Egan, Timothy; Gary Ruskin (2000-10-24). Wall Street Meets Pornography.