[SOLVED] 1ST ASSIGNMENT: Applying the Miller Test

Instructions for the 2 Law Assignments:
1ST ASSIGNMENT: Applying the Miller Test
Word Count: 275 words
The Miller Test is the United States Supreme Court’s test for determining whether speech or
expression can be labeled obscene, in which case it is not protected by the First Amendment to
the United States Constitution and can be prohibited. It was developed in the 1973 case Miller v.
California.
The first two prongs of the Miller test are held to the standards of the community, and the last
prong is held to what is reasonable to a person of the United States as a whole. The national
reasonable person standard of the third prong acts as a check on the community standard of
the first two prongs, allowing protection for works that in a certain community might be
considered obscene but on a national level might have redeeming value.
The Miller test requires that the government prove that a publication meet all the steps of the
test before the government can ban the publication as obscene.
The test is as follows:
● An average person applying contemporary local community standards finds that the
work, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interests.
● The work depicts sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, specifically defined by
applicable state law.
● The work in question lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
For a much deeper and more interesting treatment of how we arrived at the Miller Test:
Read Judith Silver’s article on the attached PDF titled: “SCTmovieDay(1)(1)”.
Read the attached hypothetical PDF titled “MillerTest” and answer the questions.
FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS EXACTLY!
Proofread your writing carefully and attach a docx file as your submission.
2ND ASSIGNMENT: Supreme Court: Internet Filters
Word Count: 275
Study the following:
● Supreme Court Upholds Library Web Filters
You can also study two spinoff cases:
● http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/article/filtering-and-first-amendment
To complete the assignment, answer the following questions:
● How do you think the case should have been decided? Be sure to back up your answer using
some of the discussion below.
● Now argue the other side: The opposite of how you think the case should have been decided.
Again, back up your answer using some of the discussion below.
● What are some of the future prospects of a challenge to the law as applied?
Remember to write in short paragraphs of 1-3 sentences each. Your submission should be around 275
words.
Proofread your writing carefully and attach a docx file as your submission.