Miller v. California
| Miller v. California | |
|---|---|
| Argued January 18–19, 1972 Reargued November 7, 1972 Decided June 21, 1973 | |
| Full case name | Marvin Miller v. State of California |
| Citations | 413 U.S. 15 (more) 93 S. Ct. 2607; 37 L. Ed. 2d 419; 1973 U.S. LEXIS 149; 1 Media L. Rep. 144.1 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | Summary affirmation of jury verdict by Appellate Department, Superior Court of California, County of Orange, was unpublished. |
| Holding | |
| Obscene materials are defined as those that the average person, applying contemporary community standards, find, taken as a whole, appeal to the prurient interest; that depict or describe, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions specifically defined by applicable state law; and that the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Burger, joined by White, Blackmun, Powell, Rehnquist |
| Dissent | Douglas |
| Dissent | Brennan, joined by Stewart, Marshall |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. I; Cal. Penal Code 311.2(a) | |
Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court clarifying the legal definition of obscenity as material that lacks "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value". The ruling was the origin of the three-part judicial test for determining obscene media content that can be banned by government authorities, which is now known as the Miller test.