obscene, adj. Extremely offensive under contemporary community standards of morality and decency; grossly repugnant to the generally accepted notions of what is appropriate. • Under the Supreme Court’s three-part test, material is legally obscene — and therefore not protected under the First Amendment — if, taken as a whole, the material (1) appeals to the prurient interest in sex, as determined by the average person applying contemporary community standards; (2) portrays sexual conduct, as specifically defined by the applicable state law, in a patently offensive way; and (3) lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 93 S.Ct. 2607 (1973). [Cases: Constitutional Law 82(10), 90.4; Obscenity
1. C.J.S. Constitutional Law §§ 464, 546, 631, 635–637, 639, 644, 646–648; Obscenity §§ 1–8.]
“If there be no abstract definition, … should not the word ‘obscene’ be allowed to indicate the present critical point in the compromise between candor and shame at which the community may have arrived here and now?” United States v. Kennerley, 209 F. 119, 121 (S.D.N.Y. 1913)(per Hand, J.).
译员张宏，知名法学院法律翻译专业，专注翻译各种与
调查与白领犯罪辩护有关的法律文件。
