Distilling Ashcroft: The Ninth Circuit's Application of National Community Standards to Internet Obscenity in United States v. Kilbride

The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in US v. Kilbride highlights a circuit split regarding the application of the Miller v. California test for determining whether a work is obscene in the context of sexually explicit material disseminated via the Internet. It has long been held that obscene ma...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Brigham Young University law review 2011-01, Vol.2011 (1), p.1
Main Author: Ashcroft, Eric B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advertising
Community
Electronic mail systems
Federal court decisions
Indictments
Internet
Law
Minors
Pornography & obscenity
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Summary:The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in US v. Kilbride highlights a circuit split regarding the application of the Miller v. California test for determining whether a work is obscene in the context of sexually explicit material disseminated via the Internet. It has long been held that obscene material "is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press." The most recent Supreme Court case related to this issue, Ashcroft v. ACLU, left the Court highly divided and gave the lower courts little guidance. Since Ashcroft, circuit courts have continued to apply different community standards to sexually explicit Internet material. In Kilbride, the Ninth Circuit "distilled the various opinions in Ashcroft" and held that a national community standard must be applied in regulating Internet obscenity. The Ninth Circuit's opinion in Kilbride reads as if the case presented a distinct issue from the Miller line of cases and was in fact already determined by a "majority" in Ashcroft.
ISSN:0360-151X
2162-8572