Obscenity, Violent Videogames

Question 1

US v. Roth

Answer 1

i. Mailing porn (obscenity)
ii. Court says SCOTUS has deemed such material to be unprotected by the 1st amendment
iii. But concurrence points to the facts that social sciences don’t connect obscenity with anti-social behavior

iv. Judge Frank says previous courts misrepresented Dr. Jahoda’s findings
1) So he asked Jahoda directly
a) Leads to ethical questions in our adversarial system

Question 2

Judicial options for obtaining empirical research

Answer 2

i. Research provided by an expert witness at trial
ii. provided by the parties or amici in briefs
iii. Published research found by the court
iv. Unpublished [?] research found by the court
v. Court contacts researcher (Roth)

vi. Court conducts [adjudicative fact? legislative fact?]
research itself.

Question 3

Commission on Obscenity and Porn 1970

Answer 3

i. Points to Denmark as having lower rate of sex crimes with higher rate of exposure to porn

ii. Argues that no connection can be found in US between sex crimes and porn exposure
1) Dissent: issue of moral corruption
a) Impossible to disprove connection

Question 4

Meese Commission (AG’s Commission on Porn 1986)

Answer 4

i. Studies sex and violence
1) Findings: exposure to violent porn might lead to actual violence

2) Dissent: study tainted by only studying college-age males

Question 5

Linz Porn and Aggression Research

Answer 5

i. Exposure to violence seems to be the only indicator for future violent acts
ii. But those exposed to violence/sex also have propensity to be violent
iii. But not sex alone!

Question 6

NY v. Ferber

Answer 6

i. Child porn (but engaged in masturbation, not intercourse)

ii. Children are still a protected class, even if not in intercourse

Question 7

US v. Hotaling

Answer 7

i. Perp superimposed kid’s faces on adult bodies
ii. Not protected by 1st amendment!

iii. Reputational harm (Hotaling used kids’ names)
Kids are protected

Question 8

American Amusement Machine Association v. Kendrick

Answer 8

i. Finding (Posner): Obscenity is sex, not violence

1) Sex obscenity is offensive

Question 9

Anderson Video Game studies

Answer 9

i. Violent/non-violent video games
ii. Followed by a fill in the blank word puzzle/story stems
1) Showed correlation between violent video games and violent thoughts

Question 10

Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association

Answer 10

1) Test: strict scrutiny

2) SCOTUS (Scalia): CA did not meet this test