Obscenity

An obscenity is any statement or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. Satirizing the ruler may be obscene, offending the god(s) may ve obscene, making obscene profits is obscene.

The United States, a litigious country (it was born litigious), has led the world in specifying specifically what obscenity is (at least in the United States). "Freedom of the press" is protected in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. However, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly declared that the First Amendment does not protect obscenity.

This is how these things get decided in the United States: the Supreme Court decides them. The Supreme Court justices are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate; after that, they have a job for life and never have to worry about elections. This is as close to royalty that one finds in the United States, created before the French revolution of 1789, when monarchy had never been seriously challenged outside of England.

Whatever you think of the Supreme Court justices - I will not put here my opinion of Clarence Thomas - it is undeniable that they have taken their positions seriously. These highly-educated men and women - better educated than most members of congress and all presidents since Woodrow Wilson.

According to the famous 1957 Roth Supreme Court decision, the obscene work must also be "utterly without redeeming social value" to lose First Amendment protection. "Socially valuable" meant, and still means today, doing something other than sexually stimulating the reader or viewer.