The Supreme Court Standard of Obscenity Evolution since 1950

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There has been a lot of debate on the legal understandings of term obscene and its usage. Constitutionally, the term is used to define certain behaviors or expressions in motion pictures, art or literature. The law tries to look at the effects that obscenity would have on the morals of the people or on the minds of those that see the material. It also considered the effect some publications would have on the hands that they might fall in. There has been an evolution of the whole idea over the years since the inception and the legalities behind it. The issue of obscenity was mostly associated with movies and visual productions that produced materials that were accessible to the public. The United States Supreme Court was at the forefront in handling the matter through the Supreme Court (Boyer, 2006, p.167). Free speech for movies was first heralded in 1952 where the motion pictures were to be entitled a protection through the first constitutional amendment in the United States. However the idea was challenged by some institutions in 1954 on the issue of censorship. There was an argument that the movies didn’t have any substantiated protection of the constitution. This was because the movies were just but mere business and their content was developed on the need to compete through amusing and entertaining (Wittern, 2008, p.99). Therefore movies needed to be censored to protect the audience from obscenity. It became hard to have any restraints by the judiciary did not impose a charge on the censorship issue. Obscenity was taking many shapes in many things that most people get their hands on, ranging from books to magazines. As the world became more industrialized and as globalization took place access to materials that were consid... ... middle of paper ... ...things keeping on changing. Obscenity is an issue that needs to be addressed now and in the future and this could only be done through the power of the highest court, The Supreme Court. Works Cited Slade, Joseph W. Pornography and Sexual Representation: A Reference Guide. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2001. Print. Boyer, Paul S. The Oxford Companion to United States History. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006. Internet resource. Downs, Donald A. The New Politics of Pornography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. Print. Quinn, A J. Censorship of Obscenity: A Comparison of Canon Law and American Constitutional Law. Rome: Officium Libri Catholici--Catholic Book Agency, 1963. Print. Wittern-Keller, Laura. Freedom of the Screen: Legal Challenges to State Film Censorship, 1915-1981. Lexington, Ky: University Press of Kentucky, 2008. Internet resource.

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