Author: Whitney Strub
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700619372
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 280
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Book Description
For some, he was “America’s leading smut king,” hauled into court repeatedly over thirty years for peddling obscene publications through the mail. But when Samuel Roth appealed a 1956 conviction, he forced the Supreme Court to finally come to grips with a problem that had plagued both American society and constitutional law for longer than he had been in business. For while the facts of Roth v. United States were unexceptional, its constitutional issues would define the relationship of obscenity to the First Amendment. The Supreme Court’s 6–3 decision in Roth for the first time tried to definitively rule on the issue of obscenity in American life and law—and failed. In this first book-length examination of the case, Whitney Strub lays out the history of obscenity’s meaning as a legal concept, highlights the influence of antivice crusaders like Anthony Comstock and John Sumner, and chronicles the shadowy career that led Roth to spend nearly a decade of his life imprisoned for the allegedly obscene materials that he sent through the mails. Strub then unwraps the events that produced Roth v. United States, placing the trial in the context of its times—the Kinsey Reports, the Kefauver hearings, free speech debates—by using Roth’s own private papers along with the records of the various prosecutions and the memos of the justices. The significance of Roth, as Strub reveals, lay in the two faces of Justice William Brennan’s majority opinion—which on the one hand reflected the liberalizing attitude toward sexual matters in mid-century America, but on the other kept “obscene” expressions beyond First Amendment protection. Because that ruling points up the contradictions of a society where the prurient and repressive commingle uncomfortably, Strub shows how Roth says much more about American sexual values than Brennan’s written words necessarily acknowledged. In our era of internet pornography and Fifty Shades of Grey, it may be difficult to imagine a time when obscenity was a matter for the courts. As Strub tracks the legacy of Roth and obscenity law through the ongoing policing of acceptable sexuality into the twenty-first century, his riveting narrative brings those times to life and helps readers navigate the fine line between what is socially acceptable and what is criminally obscene.
Author: United States Sentencing Commission
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Sentences (Criminal procedure)
Languages : en
Pages : 68
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Author: David L. Hudson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780314606488
Category : Constitutional law
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Author: United States
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 1508
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Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Post Office and Civil Service. Subcommittee on Postal Operations
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Obscenity (Law)
Languages : en
Pages : 190
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Author: David L. Hudson Jr.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1440842515
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 220
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Book Description
Detailed yet highly readable, this book explores essential and illuminating primary source documents that provide insights into the history, development, and current conceptions of the First Amendment to the Constitution. The freedom to speak one's mind is a subject of great importance to most Americans but especially to students, minorities, and those who are socially or economically disadvantaged—individuals whose voices have historically been censored or marginalized in American society. Documents Decoded: Freedom of Speech offers accessible, student-friendly explanations of specific developments in freedom of speech in the United States and carefully excerpted primary documents, making it an indispensable resource for educators seeking to teach the First Amendment and for students wanting to learn more about important free-speech decisions. The chronologically ordered documents explore topics typically covered in American history and government curricula, addressing such contemporary issues as the regulation of online speech, flag desecration, parody, public school student speech, and the Supreme Court's recent decisions on the issue of corporate speech rights.
Author: Henry Cohen
Publisher: Nova Publishers
ISBN: 9781590337493
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 60
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Book Description
Obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment and therefore may be banned. Other pornography or indecency may be regulated to serve compelling government interest provided that the least restrictive means available is used. Contents: Summary; Constitutional Principles; Federal Obscenity and Indecency Statues; Cable Television; The Communications Decency Act of 1996; Child Online Protection Act; Child Internet Protection Act; RICO; Wiretaps; The Customs Service Provision; Index.
Author: Margaret C. Jasper
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 120
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Book Description
Author: Geoffrey R. Stone
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
ISBN: 1631493655
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 704
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Book Description
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Selection A “volume of lasting significance” that illuminates how the clash between sex and religion has defined our nation’s history (Lee C. Bollinger, president, Columbia University). Lauded for “bringing a bracing and much-needed dose of reality about the Founders’ views of sexuality” (New York Review of Books), Geoffrey R. Stone’s Sex and the Constitution traces the evolution of legal and moral codes that have legislated sexual behavior from America’s earliest days to today’s fractious political climate. This “fascinating and maddening” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) narrative shows how agitators, moralists, and, especially, the justices of the Supreme Court have navigated issues as divisive as abortion, homosexuality, pornography, and contraception. Overturning a raft of contemporary shibboleths, Stone reveals that at the time the Constitution was adopted there were no laws against obscenity or abortion before the midpoint of pregnancy. A pageant of historical characters, including Voltaire, Thomas Jefferson, Anthony Comstock, Margaret Sanger, and Justice Anthony Kennedy, enliven this “commanding synthesis of scholarship” (Publishers Weekly) that dramatically reveals how our laws about sex, religion, and morality reflect the cultural schisms that have cleaved our nation from its founding.
Author: Norman St. John-Stevas
Publisher: London : Secker & Warburg
ISBN:
Category : Obscenity (Law)
Languages : en
Pages : 318
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Book Description
