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Obscenity
Obscenity (in Latin obscenus, meaning "foul, repulsive, detestable"), is a term that is most often used in a legal context to describe expressions (words, images, actions) that offend the prevalent sexual morality of the time.
Despite its long formal and informal use with a sexual connotation, the word still retains the meanings of "inspiring disgust" and even "inauspicious; ill-omened", as in such uses as "obscene profits", "the obscenity of war", etc. It can simply be used to mean profanity, or it can mean anything that is taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting.
The definition of obscenity differs from culture to culture, between communities within a single culture, and also between individuals within those communities. Many cultures have produced laws to define what is considered to be obscene, and censorship is often used to try to suppress or control materials that are obscene under these definitions: usually including, but not limited to, pornographic material. As such censorship restricts freedom of expression, crafting a legal definition of obscenity presents a civil liberties issue.
The obscenity of Richard Nixon and Warren Burger discussing obscenity ex parte.
Bill of Rights (From public domain.) Before getting disbarred over his role in the Watergate coverup, Richard Nixon was a lawyer...
"Art or Obscenity? Unusual Case Draws Controversy; Child Rape Fiction Case Tests if Writers Can Be Punished Under Federal Obscenity Law."
"Art or Obscenity? Unusual Case Draws Controversy; Child Rape Fiction Case Tests if Writers Can Be Punished Under Federal Obscenity Law...
"'Text-Only' Web Obscenity Case Attracts National Attention; Motions to dismiss said obscenity laws should not be applied to text where no pictures were involved"How Appealing
The Department of Commerce sent a letter to Sen. Patrick J. Leahy Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary, on the views of the current Administration on S...
A Plea Is Entered in an Obscenity Prosecution Against a Sexual Abuse Victim Who Posted Her Writings About Abuse on the Internet: Should the Federal Government Be Prosecuting Words As Obscenity?
Julie Hilden has this commentary on Findlaw. She writes:
Earlier this month, in Pittsburgh, U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti sentenced a woman who says she is a sexual abuse survivor, Karen Fletcher, to home confinement for violating the federal obscenity laws...
?The day obscenity became art?
Fred Kaplan reports in the New York Times: "Today is the 50th anniversary of the court ruling that overturned America?s obscenity laws, setting off an explosion of free speech ? and also, in retrospect, splashing cold water on the idea, much discussed during Sonia Sotomayor?s Supreme Court confirmation hearings, that judges are 'umpires' rather than agents of social change...
"The Day Obscenity Became Art"
"The Day Obscenity Became Art": Today in The New York Times, Fred Kaplan has an op-ed that begins, "Today is the 50th anniversary of the court ruling that overturned America's obscenity laws, setting off an explosion of free speech -- and also, in retrospect, splashing cold water on the idea, much discussed during Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, that judges are 'umpires' rather than agents of social change...
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