"Obscene" Literature and Constitutional Law: A Forensic Defense of Freedom of the Press |
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Common terms and phrases
abridgment abuse according action arbitrary argument authority believe blasphemy censorship citizen common law conception conduct Congress constitutional guarantee contempt conviction courts criminal criteria of guilt declared deemed defendant determine discussion due process emotions English ethics evil Ex Parte Jackson ex post facto exercise existence expressed fact freedom of speech freedom of utterance Havelock Ellis human idea immoral implied power indecent indictment injury intellectual liberty interpretation judge judgment judicial legislation jury justice lewd libel liberty of speech literature mails marriage matter means ment mind modesty moral sentimentalizing natural justice nature nudity in art official opinion penal person postal postal censorship process of law prohibited prudery publish punish question reason regulation religion religious result scientific sexual speech and press Star Chamber statute statutory suppression tendency tests of obscenity things thought tion truth unabridged freedom uncertainty women
Popular passages
Page 221 - I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.
Page 194 - The free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the invaluable rights of man: and every citizen may freely speak, write, and print on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty.
Page 226 - The liberty of the press is, indeed, essential to the nature of a free state ; but this consists in laying no previous restraints upon publications ; and not in freedom from censure for criminal matter when published. Every freeman has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public : to forbid this is to destroy the freedom of the press : but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous, or illegal, he must take the consequence of his own temerity.
Page 94 - has freedom to do all that he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other...
Page 55 - I think the test of obscenity is this, whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences, and into whose hands a publication of this sort may fall.
Page 221 - Since therefore the knowledge and survey of vice is in this world so necessary to the constituting of human virtue, and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth, how can we more safely and with less danger scout into the regions of sin and falsity than by reading all manner of tractates, and hearing all manner of reason ? And this is the benefit which may be had of books promiscuously read.
Page 209 - Christianity is Parcel of the Laws of England; and therefore to reproach the Christian Religion is to speak in Subversion of the Law.
Page 385 - ... no subject shall be arrested, imprisoned, despoiled or deprived of his property, immunities, or privileges, put out of the protection of the law, exiled, or deprived of his life, liberty or estate; but by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land.
Page 189 - Every citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right; and no law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press.
Page 2 - I am in earnest. I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch. AND I WILL BE HEARD.