''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 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 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), 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 ...
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List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 383
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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