Obscene Definition

Any material that, judged as a whole, the average person applying contemporary community standards would find:

  • appeals to the prurient interest in sex, and
  • depicts or describes specifically defined sexual conduct in a patently offensive way.

In addition, the work judged as a whole must lack serious literary, artistic, scientific, or political value.

Obscene material isn't protected by the First Amendment and can be regulated or even banned. (See, for example, Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973).)