Court Opinion

ID: 9470726
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:14:29.653255+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:04.827281
License: Public Domain

(Harlan, J.,
concurring in part and dissenting in part).
We determine obscenity in accordance with the “present critical point in the compromise between candor and shame at which the community may have arrived here and now.” United States v. Kennerley, 209 F. 119, 121 (S.D.N.Y.1913) (L. Hand, J.). Having reviewed a representative sample of these works and in the absence of contrary evidence of prevailing community standards, we cannot say that the trial court abused its discretion in finding that the articles on Schedule 2102 were not patently offensive under contemporary standards in the New York area.
Nor do we think that the district court’s suggestion that the B.F. Skinner speech served to modify its prior conclusion that the materials lack “serious literary, artistic, political and scientific value” was reversible error. While the opinion that all pornography may have value cannot establish the value of each item on the Schedule, see United States v. Various Articles of Obscene Merchandise, Schedule No. 2127, supra, at 44, the value vel non of the challenged works is immaterial once the materials are determined not to be patently offensive.
The judgment of the district court is affirmed.