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MILLER V. CALIFORNIA
Term: 1970­1979 1971
Case Basics
Location: Collectors Publications
Facts of the Case Miller, after conducting a mass mailing campaign to advertise the sale of "adult"
material, was convicted of violating a California statute prohibiting the distribution of
obscene material. Some unwilling recipients of Miller's brochures complained to the
police, initiating the legal proceedings.
Question Is the sale and distribution of obscene materials by mail protected under the First
Amendment's freedom of speech guarantee?
Docket No. 70­73
Appellant Marvin Miller
Appellee California
Decided By Burger Court (1972­1975)
Opinion 413 U.S. 15 (1973)
Conclusion Decision: 5 votes for Miller, 4 vote(s) against
Argued January 18­19, 1972
Legal provision: Amendment 1: Speech, Press, and Assembly
In a 5­to­4 decision, the Court held that obscene materials did not enjoy First
Amendment protection. The Court modified the test for obscenity established in Roth
v. United States and Memoirs v. Massachusetts, holding that "[t]he basic guidelines
for the trier of fact must be: (a) whether 'the average person, applying contemporary
community standards' would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the
prurient interest. . . (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive
way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether
the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value."
The Court rejected the "utterly without redeeming social value" test of the Memoirs
decision.
Reargued: Tuesday, November 7, 1972
Decided Thursday, June 21, 1973
Advocates
Burton Marks
(Reargued the cause for the appellant)
Michael R. Capizzi
(Reargued the cause for the appellee)
Tags
Burger
White
Cite this Page
Blackmun
Powell
Rehnquist
Douglas
Brennan
Stewart
First
Amendment
Marshall
Obscenity State
MILLER v. CALIFORNIA. The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago­Kent College of Law. 23 November 2014.
<http://www.oyez.org/cases/1970­1979/1971/1971_70_73>.
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