Miller Test
The Miller test was developed in the 1973 case Miller v. California. It has three parts:
- Whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest,
- Whether the work depicts/describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions specifically defined by applicable state law,
- Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. (This is also known as the (S)LAPS test- Literary, Artistic, Political, Scientific).
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, writing for the majority, included the following definitions of what may be "patently offensive":
- "Representations or descriptions of ultimate sex acts normal or perverted, actual or simulated."
- "Representations or descriptions of masturbation, excretory functions, and lewd exhibitions of the genitals."
Read more about this topic: Patently Offensive
Famous quotes containing the words miller and/or test:
“We do not talk—we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines and digests.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“The test of an adventure is that when you’re in the middle of it, you say to yourself, “Oh, now I’ve got myself into an awful mess; I wish I were sitting quietly at home.” And the sign that something’s wrong with you is when you sit quietly at home wishing you were out having lots of adventure.”
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975)