The First Amendment and Pornography

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The First Amendment and Pornography Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. —The First Amendment to the United States Constitution Like parents, politicians, educators, and other concerned adults, the United States Supreme Court has struggled to establish the right balance between free-speech protection and laws enacted to curtail the spread of pornography. The first case that really dealt with pornography and the potential violation of the Freedom of Speech was Roth v. United States, and its companion case Alberts v California, 354 U.S. 476 (1957) In Roth v. United States, Roth published and sold books, photographs and magazines in New York, using circulars and advertising matter to solicit sales. He was convicted of mailing obscene circulars and advertising and an obscene book in violation of the federal obscenity statute which stated: Every obscene, lewd, lascivious, or filthy book, pamphlet, picture, paper, letter, writing, print, or other publication of an indecent character... is declared to be nonmailable matter... Whoever knowingly deposits for mailing or delivery, anything declared by this section to be nonmailable, or knowingly takes the same from the mails for the purpose of circulating or disposing thereof, or of aiding in the circulation or disposition thereof, shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. In Alberts v. California,Alberts ran a mail-order business from Los Angeles and was convicted under a misdemeanor complaint which charged him with lewdly keeping for sale obscene and indecent books, and with writing, composing and publishing an obscene advertisement of them, in

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