Sanitizing Cyberspace: Obscenity, Miller,and the Future of Public Discourse on the Intemet

Journal of Intellectual Property Law Volume 11 | Issue 1 Article 7 April 2016 Sanitizing Cyberspace: Obscenity, Miller,and the Future of Public Discourse on the Intemet John Tehranian University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/jipl Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, and the First Amendment Commons Recommended Citation John Tehranian, Sanitizing Cyberspace: Obscenity, Miller,and the Future of Public Discourse on the Intemet, 11 J. Intell. Prop. L. 1 (2016). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/jipl/vol11/iss1/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Georgia Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Intellectual Property Law by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Georgia Law. Please share how you have benefited from this access For more information, please contact . Tehranian: Sanitizing Cyberspace: Obscenity, Miller,and the Future of Public JOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW VOLUME 11 FALL 2003 NUMBER 1 ARTICLES SANITIZING CYBERSPACE: OBSCENITY, MILLER, AND THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC DISCOURSE ON THE INTERNET John Tehranian* I. INTRODUCTION Upon hearing the obstreperous thump of a man incessantly pounding his bongo drums in the public park, writer Donald Barthelme once observed: "I hate bongo drums. I started to tell him to stop playing those goddamn bongo drums but then I said to myself, No, that's not right. You got to let him play his goddamn bongo drums if he feels like it, it's part of the misery of democracy, to which I subscribe."' To be sure, the misery of democracy dictates that we tolerate viewpoints other than our own, that we let people play the bongo drums, however begrudgingly. But it is not merely for the misery of democracy that we protect the right of individuals to pound the drums. Bongos can add to the richness of public discourse. This simple but controversial proposition, as applied to obscenity jurisprudence, is the focus of this Article. From its very inception, obscenity jurisprudence in the Supreme Court has had a troubled and "tortured history." 2 Nevertheless, the Court has desperately tried to enunciate a constitutional standard for obscenity that is consistent with the First Amendment and that enables communities to safeguard morals by * A.B., Harvard University, 1995;J.D., Yale Law School, 2000; Associate Professor, University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law. I would like to thank Owen Fiss, Lucy Fowler, and Daniel Rosenthal for their helpful comments on this Article. 'Donald Barthelme, I Boughta itle Ciy, SIXTY STORIES 295, 296 (1982). 2 Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 20 (1973). Published by Digital Commons @ Georgia Law, 2016 1 Journal of Intellectual Property Law, Vol. 11, Iss. 1 [2016], Art. 7 J. INTELL PROP.L [Vol. 11:1 proscribing certain forms of sexually explicit speech-a goal that has proven quite elusive. Justice Potter Stewart preceded his infamous declaration, "I know it when I see it,"3 with the concession that the obscenity category may be incapable of "intelligibl[e]" definition. Stewart's formulation of obscenity was, by his own admission, notoriously vague, and the ultimate constitutional standard adopted by the Supreme Court-the Miller test-has not fared much better. Enunciated by the Court in 1973, the Miller standard has remained the definitive criteria for determining the constitutional permissibility of regulations against certain forms of sexually explicit speech. To proscribe a particular work without violating the First Amendment, a trier of fact must determine (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.' If the work satisfies all three criteria, it falls outside of the protection of the First Amendment and can be censored by the state. At the moment of its enunciation, the Supreme Court's modern obscenity standard came under fire. In his dissent in Miller,Justice Douglas argued that "Obscenity-which even we cannot define with precision-is a hodge-podge. To send men to jail for violating standards they cannot understand, construe, and apply is a monstrous thing to do in a Nation dedicated to fair trials and due process."' The problem with the Miller standard, however, is far graver than even Justice Douglas envisioned. From a libertarian perspective, the Miller standard clearly violates the notion of individual autonomy and the concept of a strictly limited government. But one need not fetishize the right to be left alone or embrace a Kantian vision of the First Amendment,' based on the "right of each individual to be treated as an end in himself, an equal sovereign citizen of the kingdom of ends with a right to the greatest liberty compatible with the like liberties of all others,"' to find fault with the Millerstandard. Milkrruns afoul of 3 Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184, 197 (1964) (Stewart, J., concurring). 4 Miller, 413 U.S. at 24 (quoting Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476, 489 (1957)). 5 Miller, 413 U.S. at 43-44 (Douglasj., dissenting). See IMMANUEL KANT, FOUNDATIONS OF THE METAPHYSICS OF MORALS (Lewis White Beck trans., Bobbs-Merill, 1969) (1959); IMMANUEL KANT, THE METAPHYSICAL ELEMENTS OFJUSTICE 6 (Bobbs-Merrill, 1965) (expressing Kant's influential idea that the individual should be treated as an end, entitled to autonomy and dignity). ' Charles Fried, The New FirstAxendmentmrisprwdence: A Threatto Libev, https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/jipl/vol11/iss1/7 59 U. CHI. L. REv. 2 Tehranian: Sanitizing Cyberspace: Obscenity, Miller,and the Future of Public 2003] SANITIZING CYBERSPACE a collectivist theory of the First Amendment,' which promotes the value of free speech in producing a public capable of self-government and democratic deliberation. By stark contract to the existing literature analyzing obscenity jurisprudence, the principal focus of this Article is the conflict between Millerand a collectivist vision of free speech. The disjuncture between modern obscenity jurisprudence and the development of a rich public discourse is of particular importance with the increasing use of the Internet as an expressive medium. Regulation of content on the Internet is well under way, and the direction that obscenity jurisprudence takes will play a vital role in determining the richness of the public discourse in the cyberage. This Article casts a particular eye towards the recent wave of legislation seeking to regulate obscenity in cyberspace and towards two related Supreme Court decisions: Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition9 and Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union." (...truncated)