Criminal Justice
Please review the handout, "Does the Sending of Obscene Material," found in the required reading, and answer all of the following questions:
a. Do you agree that the statute in question applies to computer-generated and computer-transmitted information?
b. Should the government be required to present expert witnesses to establish that the material in question is obscene? Is this a question that a jury can decide on its own? How are jury members aware of "community standards"?
c. If the community standards are different in Milpitas, California, from those of Memphis, Tennessee, why should the defendants be held accountable for the standards in Memphis and not those in the location where the material was transmitted?
d. Are you satisfied with the test for obscenity? In what manner, if any, would you change the standard?
CASE:
DOES THE SENDING OF OBSCENE MATERIAL OVER THE INTERNET CONSTITUTE THE TRANSPORTATION OF OBSCENE MATERIAL IN INTERSTATE COMMERCE?
United States v. Thomas U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, 1996 74 F.3d 701