Opinion ID: 1876720
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: new test prospective only

Text: As to the constitutional sufficiency of § 847.011 per se regarding no specific elaboration on the words obscene, lewd and lascivious, we must take the constitutional view that although there is a new test of obscenity in the aforementioned recent federal opinions, it does not avail us insofar as the sufficiency of the statutory language is concerned for purposes of the earlier offense before us for review. We are, of course, also aware that the U.S. Supreme Court saw fit to visit its new test retroactively as a matter of judicial construction upon its own federal statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1462, as to interstate transportation of obscene material and 19 U.S.C. § 1305(a) prohibiting importation thereof, which statutes are in fact in simpler terms than our own Florida statute. These federal statutes simply prohibit that which is obscene or immoral. [14] Nevertheless, we do not deem the new U.S. Supreme Court test to be applicable to the earlier offense here on May 5, 1971, as to the change of standards under c (literary value), because of constitutional ex post facto principles which apply. [15] The later enlightenment afforded by the new test cannot be visited upon the earlier offense to the extent outlined above, to shore up the rule that the statute must be sufficient to place the average person of common intelligence on notice of the proscribed conduct at the time of the offensive action. [16]