Whether, to the average person, applying contemporary community… — William J. Brennan, Jr. · Skopia

← Back to quotes

Supreme Court opinion · Legal writing

Whether, to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interest.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

1957

★ 5.1

Establishing the American legal standard for obscenity, which does not receive First Amendment protection.

Other tags relating to this quote

Topic

Obscenity Freedom of speech and expression First Amendment

Genre

Medium

Supreme Court opinion

Time

Person

William J. Brennan, Jr.

Provenance

Citation

Brennan, William J, Jr. United States, Supreme Court. Roth v. United States. United States Reports, vol. 354, 24 June 1957, pp. 476-514. supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/354/476/.

Related quotes

Other quotes that share a subject, a time, or a voice with this one.

All ideas having even the slightest redeeming social importance—unorthodox ideas, controversial ideas, even ideas hateful to the prevailing climate of opinion—have the full protection of the guaranties... But implicit in the history of the First Amendment is the rejection of obscenity as utterly without redeeming social importance... We hold that obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

1957

Another quote aboutTopic·Obscenity

I know it when I see it.

Jacobellis v. Ohio · 1964

Another quote aboutTopic·Obscenity

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Bill of Rights · 1789

Another quote aboutTopic·First Amendment

The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.

Everson v. Board of Education · 1947

Another quote aboutTopic·First Amendment

If the right of privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

Eisentadt v. Baird · 1972

Another quote byPerson·William J. Brennan, Jr.