the.com/obscenity
The law's way of saying 'I can't define it, but I know it when I see it.'
means Material or conduct judged offensive to accepted standards of decency, especially in its depiction of sex or vulgarity.
from From Latin obscenus, meaning inauspicious, ill-omened, or offensive, which itself has disputed roots — possibly tied to caenum, 'filth,' though some scholars connect the ob- prefix to a sense of something 'set apart' or 'off-stage,' as in too repugnant to be shown. The word passed through French obscène into English by the 16th century, carrying the sense of something that violates moral or public decency — a judgment that has proven far easier to feel than to define.
- legal test
- Supreme Court literally ruled it defies definition, 1964
- community standards
- what counts varies by zip code, legally
- etymology
- from Latin obscenus, meaning ill omened or disgusting
- protected speech
- first amendment stops exactly where obscenity starts