Opinion ID: 574686
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Community Standards Instruction

Text: 30 Defendants contend that the trial court erred by instructing the jury as follows: 31 Contemporary community standards are set by what is in fact accepted in the community as a whole; that is to say by society at large or people in general; and not by what some persons or groups of persons may believe the community as a whole ought to accept or refuse to accept. 32 Although they concede that this language is taken verbatim from Federal Jury Practice and Instructions, § 62.07 (West 1977), defendants argue that the court should have substituted tolerated for accepted. As support for this proposition, they cite dictum from Smith v. United States, 431 U.S. 291, 305 (1977) (contemporary community standards must be applied by juries in accordance with their own understanding of the tolerance of the average person in their community). Despite this language, there is nothing in Smith that indicates that the Court intended to modify the seminal test outlined in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 32 (1973), which uses acceptance language. 33 Furthermore, subsequent to the Smith decision, this court, in United States v. Battista, 646 F.2d 237, 245 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1046 (1981), reviewed this same contention and unequivocally rejected it.