What if in 1973, The supreme court had ruled obscenity laws to be unconstitutional and that obscene materials were protected by the first amendment? what effect would this have on the porn industry? How would the religious right react?
What if in 1973, The supreme court had ruled obscenity laws to be unconstitutional and that obscene materials were protected by the first amendment? what effect would this have on the porn industry? How would the religious right react?
The porn industry would be bigger than they were in the 1970's (In 1976, we had X-rated films advertised openly in my local paper), and the Religious Right would have another issue, besides abortion and loss of tax-exempt status for discriminatory schools.
Would a more widespread porn industry also result in it being more heavily hit during the AIDS epidemic?
In Miller v. California SCOTUS scrapped the standards of Memoirs v. Massachusetts which in turn "clarified" the standards of Roth v. United States. Memoirs said that to be obscene something had to be "utterly without redeeming social importance". Miller replaced that with a three pronged test that in the long run did not make as big a difference as first thought. SCOTUS was not going to completely scrap all prior precedents and declare obscenity to be completely protected by First Amendment in Miller. It might have reiterated the standards of Memoirs though.