Miller v. California

The Court articulated the three-part test for obscenity: prurient appeal by community standards, patently offensive conduct, and lack of serious value.

Overview

Mass-mail advertiser Marvin Miller was convicted under California obscenity law for unsolicited brochures containing adult material. Chief Justice Burger, for a 5-4 majority, reformulated obscenity doctrine. A work is obscene only if the average person applying contemporary community standards finds that it appeals to prurient interest, depicts sexual conduct specifically defined by law in a patently offensive way, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. Miller shifted primary authority to the states, spawned extensive litigation over what serious value means, and still governs obscenity regulation today.