Miller V California 1973

Title and Year

Miller V California 

1973

 Court

 Burger

 Majority Opinion

Warren Burger

 Facts/Brief Background

The residents of the Newport Beach, California complained to the police that they have been receiving large number of advertisements from a nearby adult dealer. The citizens informed that the advertisements contained illustrations and photographs on people involving in sexual activity and nude pictures. The police arrested Miller for the violation of the California statute which bans these actions. Miller argued that the statute was violating the freedom of speech granted by the 1st amendment. The case was appealed into and it was finally accepted into the Supreme Court

Issue

Is the sale and distribution of obscene materials by mail protected under the First Amendment's freedom of speech guarantee?

 Ruling & Legal Doctrine

The court ruled against Miller. Court reaffirmed the decision of Roth V US. Chief Justice Burger in his majority opinion stated that the distribution of obscene materials is not protected by the first amendment. Court acknowledged the problem of the Roth test. The Roth test was too broad and it gives too much power to the congress and other state legislatures to regulate obscenity. They also wanted to change the other obscenity test proposed in Memoirs V Massachusetts. The court proposed a new test for determining whether a material can be deemed as obscene known as the Miller test. The Miller test’s text

1. whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards (not national standards, as some prior tests required), would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest;

2. whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions specifically defined by applicable state law; and

3. "whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value

<p style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:1.2pt; margin-left:38.4pt;text-indent:-.25in;line-height:18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops:list .5in">Significance

<p style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal">This decision was partly the over ruling of Roth V US. The decision was pretty important and it served as the precedent for several other cases that trailed after it. This decision was used to strike down several adult theatres and other forms of adult entertainment in the public places. Some books were banned because of this decision and several organization worked hard to capitalize on this decision and they were successful in most parts.