''Memoirs v. Massachusetts'', 383 U.S. 413 (1966), was the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
decision that attempted to clarify a holding regarding
obscenity
An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be use ...
made a decade earlier in ''
Roth v. United States
''Roth v. United States'', 354 U.S. 476 (1957), along with its companion case ''Alberts v. California'', was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States which redefined the Constitutional test for determining what constitutes o ...
'' (1957).
Since the ''Roth'' ruling, to be declared obscene a work of literature had to be proven by
censors to: 1) appeal to
prurient
Ian Dominick Fernow is an American experimental musician, poet and multimedia artist. He is best known for extreme music released under the stage name Prurient, as well as numerous other aliases including Vatican Shadow and Rainforest Spiritual ...
interest, 2) be patently offensive, and 3) have no redeeming social value. The book in question in this case was ''
Fanny Hill
''Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure''—popularly known as ''Fanny Hill''—is an erotic novel by English novelist John Cleland first published in London in 1748. Written while the author was in debtors' prison in London,Wagner, "Introduction", ...
'' (or ''Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure'', 1749) by
John Cleland
John Cleland (c. 1709, baptised – 23 January 1789) was an English novelist best known for his fictional '' Fanny Hill: or, the Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure'', whose eroticism led to his arrest. James Boswell called him "a sly, old malcont ...
and the Court held in ''Memoirs v. Massachusetts'' that, while it might fit the first two criteria (it appealed to
prurient interest and was
patently offensive
Patently offensive is a term used in United States law regarding obscenity under the First Amendment.
The phrase "patently offensive" first appeared in ''Roth v. United States'', referring to any obscene acts or materials that are considered to ...
), it could not be proven that ''Fanny Hill'' had no redeeming social value. The judgment favoring the plaintiff continued that it could still be held obscene under certain circumstances for instance, if it were marketed solely for its prurient appeal.
''Memoirs v. Massachusetts'' led to more years of debate about what was and was not obscene and the conferring of more power in these matters to proposers of local community standards.
See also
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Banned in Boston
"Banned in Boston" is a phrase that was employed from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, to describe a literary work, song, motion picture, or play which had been prohibited from distribution or exhibition in Boston, Massachuset ...
*
List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 383
This is a list of all United States Supreme Court cases from volume 383 of the ''United States Reports
The ''United States Reports'' () are the official record ( law reports) of the Supreme Court of the United States. They include rulings, ord ...
Further reading
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References
External links
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United States Supreme Court cases
United States obscenity case law
1966 in United States case law
United States in rem cases
United States Supreme Court cases of the Warren Court
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