The Supreme Court: Hint on Obscenity

No U.S. problem is more aggravating to the Supreme Court than obscenity. If a publication is obscene, the court has said, the First Amendment does not protect it. But obscenity defies specific legal definition, and attempts at rulings have left things more muddied than ever. Last October, the court took under consideration two cases involving booksellers from New York and Kentucky who had been convicted for selling such obscene publications as Lust Pool and High Heels. A third case concerned the right of Arkansas to suppress and destroy various girlie magazines, including Gent, Bachelor and Swank. Though it had...

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