Court Opinion

ID: 9426797
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:18:58.115576+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:03.219520
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Powell,
concurring.
I join the Court’s opinion and write to express my understanding of the relative narrowness of the questions presented.
At the time petitioner engaged in the conduct at issue here, Iowa law placed no limits on the distribution of obscene materials to adults. If Iowa law governs in this federal *310prosecution, petitioner’s conviction must be reversed. Our decision therefore turns on the answers to two questions, one requiring interpretation of a federal statute, the other calling for application of the constitutional standards announced in Miller v. California, 413 U. S. 15 (1973).
The first question, easily answered, is whether Congress intended to incorporate state obscenity statutes into 18 U. S. C. § 1461. I agree with the Court’s opinion, ante, at 303-304, and n. 10, that no such intent existed.
The federal statute goes to the constitutional limit, reaching all pornographic materials not protected under the First Amendment. See Marks v. United States, 430 U. S. 188, 195 (1977). Under Miller local community standards play an important role in defining that limit. The second question, therefore, is whether “community standards,” as that concept is used in Miller, necessarily follow changes in a State’s statutory law. Again, I agree with the Court’s conclusion that they do not. A community may still judge that materials are patently offensive and that they appeal to the prurient interest even though its legislature has chosen, for whatever reason, not to apply state criminal sanctions to those who distribute them. The state statute is relevant evidence of evolving community standards, and it was properly brought to the attention of the jury here. But it is not controlling in a prosecution under federal law.
I emphasize, however, that this case presents no question concerning the limits on a State’s power to design its obscenity statutes as it sees fit or to define community standards as it chooses for purposes of applying its own laws. Within the boundaries staked out by Miller, the States retain broad latitude in this respect.