Misplaced Pages

#729270

35-665: NCAC is concerned with censorship across all media including art, literature, and film; it works on several fronts through its programs, working with artists and curators through the Arts & Culture Advocacy Program (ACAP) , addressing young people and youth culture through the Youth Free Expression Program (YFEP) and the Kids' Right to Read Project (KRRP) . Past initiatives include defending researchers with The Knowledge Project: Censorship and Sciences, and addressing

70-467: A felony who are known as felons ). Depending on the jurisdiction, examples of misdemeanors may include: petty theft , prostitution , public intoxication , simple assault , disorderly conduct , trespass , shoplifting , vandalism , reckless driving , indecent exposure , forcible touching , and possession of cannabis for personal use. In the United States, even if a criminal charge for

105-592: A prison . Jurisdictions such as Massachusetts are a notable exception; the maximum punishment of some misdemeanors there is up to 2.5 years. People who are convicted of misdemeanors are often punished with probation , community service , short jail term, or part-time incarceration such as a sentence that may be served on the weekends. The United States Constitution provides that the President may be impeached and subsequently removed from office if found guilty by Congress for "high crimes and misdemeanors". As used in

140-686: A California mail-order business specializing in pornographic films and books, mass-mailed a brochure advertising products that graphically depicted sexual activity between men and women. Five of the brochures were mailed to a restaurant in Newport Beach , California . The owner and his mother opened the envelope and seeing the brochures, called the police. Miller was arrested and charged with violating California Penal Code 311.2(a) which says in part: "Every person who knowingly sends or causes to be sent, or brings or causes to be brought, into this state for sale or distribution, [...] any obscene matter

175-684: A guilty verdict. Miller appealed to the Appellate Division of the Superior Court, arguing that the jury instructions did not use the standard set in Memoirs v. Massachusetts which said that in order to be judged obscene, materials must be "utterly without redeeming social value." The appellate division rejected this argument and upheld the jury verdict. Miller then filed an appeal with the California Court of Appeal for

210-425: A harsher sentence. An example is the penalty imposed for vandalism , which is a fine not exceeding S$ 2,000 or imprisonment not exceeding three years, and also corporal punishment of not less than three strokes and not more than eight strokes with the use of a cane . Depending on the jurisdiction, several classes of misdemeanors may exist. The forms of punishment can vary widely between those classes. For example,

245-537: A joint performance by theater stars, Joe Iconis and George Salazar . The two men sung a song from a musical in development called Be More Chill. Gayle Forman , a best-selling young-adult novelist, Ny'Shira Lundy, a teenage literary activist, and Sadie Price-Elliott, a youth film maker were also honored at the event. According to the NCAC's official website, the members of the coalition are: Miller v. California Miller v. California , 413 U.S. 15 (1973),

280-631: A media item to be legitimately subjected to state regulatory bans: This test clarified the definition of obscenity originally set out in the Memoirs precedent. This three-part analysis became known as the Miller test . The result of the ruling was that the Supreme Court overturned Miller's criminal conviction and remanded the case back to the California Superior Court for reconsideration of whether Miller had committed

315-428: A misdemeanor, but be charged as a felony when committed in front of a minor . Misdemeanors usually do not result in the restriction of civil rights, but may result in loss of privileges, such as professional licenses, public offices, or public employment. Such effects are known as the collateral consequences of criminal charges . This is more common when the misdemeanor is related to the privilege in question (such as

350-476: A misdemeanor. On overturning Miller's conviction, the Court stated: "Under the holdings announced today, no one will be subject to prosecution for the sale or exposure of obscene materials unless these materials depict or describe patently offensive 'hard core' sexual conduct specifically defined by the regulating state law, as written or construed." The Miller ruling, and particularly the resulting Miller test ,

385-569: Is a young adult author who often features gay characters in his novels. Bertin is a constitutional and civil rights lawyer who was the executive director of NCAC from 1997 until June 2017. On November 5, 2018, the Free Speech Defender awards took place in New York City and honored the artistic director of The Public Theater , Oscar Eustis , for his commitment to promoting public theater and defending freedom of expression. At

SECTION 10

#1732772426730

420-427: Is any "lesser" criminal act in some common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished less severely than more serious felonies , but theoretically more so than administrative infractions (also known as minor, petty, or summary offences ) and regulatory offences . Typically, misdemeanors are punished with prison time of no longer than one year, monetary fines, or community service . A misdemeanor

455-411: Is considered a crime of lesser seriousness, and a felony one of greater seriousness. The maximum punishment for a misdemeanor is less than that for a felony under the principle that the punishment should fit the crime. One standard for measurement is the degree to which a crime affects others or society. Measurements of the degree of seriousness of a crime have been developed. In the United States,

490-485: Is for a first offense, guilty of a misdemeanor ." California lawmakers wrote the statute based on two previous Supreme Court obscenity rulings: Memoirs v. Massachusetts and Roth v. United States . Miller was tried by jury at the Superior Court of Orange County . The judge instructed the jury to evaluate the evidence by the community standards of California as defined by the statute. The jury returned

525-633: Is largely addressed in another Supreme Court precedent from roughly the same period: Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton . Categories of media material that completely fail the Miller test, and thus can be completely banned by government authorities, have been narrowed down in later Supreme Court rulings. Child pornography was deemed to be unprotected by the First Amendment in New York v. Ferber in 1982, because it has no redeeming social value per

560-620: Is to: NCAC formed "The Coalition" in 1973 in response to the Supreme Court decision in Miller v. California . The decision concluded that the First Amendment does not protect obscene speech and defined obscene as something lacking serious literary, artistic, or scientific value. The Free Speech Defender Awards is NCAC's annual fundraiser. The 2017 Free Speech Defender Awards took place on November 6 in downtown New York City. The event honored David Levithan and Joan E. Bertin. Levithan

595-520: The Memoirs v. Massachusetts precedent, particularly its test for material without any redeeming social value. Miller believed that such material had value for consenting adults who purchased it voluntarily. Per this argument positioning such material as items of expression, the question before the Court was whether the sale and distribution of that material was protected under the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech . The court determined that

630-536: The Constitution, the term misdemeanor refers broadly to criminal acts as opposed to employing the felony-misdemeanor distinction used in modern criminal codes. The definition of what constitutes "high crimes and misdemeanors" for purposes of impeachment is left to the judgment of Congress. In Singapore , defendants found guilty of misdemeanors are generally given a jail sentence for a number of months, but with certain specific crimes, suspects are sentenced to

665-731: The Court "was faced with the task of trying to define what may be indefinable", and that criminal laws were constitutionally limited to hardcore pornography , which he did not try to define: "perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it ". In Memoirs v. Massachusetts in 1966, the Supreme Court refined the Roth test to material that is "patently offensive" and "utterly without redeeming social value ". These precedents resulted in an unclear definition of obscene material that could be banned by government authorities. Miller had based his appeal in California on

700-498: The Court wanted to revisit. Chief Justice Warren Burger believed that the Court's obscenity jurisprudence was misguided and that governments should be given more leeway to ban obscene materials. Burger pushed for a looser definition of "obscenity" which would allow local prosecutions. Meanwhile, Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. , pushed for First Amendment protection for all "obscenity" unless distributed to minors or exposed offensively to unconsenting adults. These disagreements among

735-593: The Justices resulted in three different hearings, pushing Miller's case into 1973. Since the Roth v. United States ruling in 1957, the Supreme Court had struggled to define what embodied constitutionally unprotected obscene material. Under the Comstock laws controlling mail distribution that prevailed before Roth , any material that tended to "deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences"

SECTION 20

#1732772426730

770-475: The Miller test. In Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition in 2002, however, the Court held that sexually explicit material that only appears to depict minors, but actually does not, might be exempt from obscenity rulings. The " community standards " portion of the Miller test is of particular relevance with the rise of the Internet, as materials believed by some to be "obscene" can be accessed from anywhere in

805-518: The Third District , which declined to review the lower court rulings. Adopting a freedom of speech argument, Miller applied to the U.S. Supreme Court for certiorari , which was granted. The first oral arguments were heard in January 1972. The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari to Miller because the California statute at issue was based on two previous obscenity precedents that

840-711: The UK the substance of the original distinction remains, only slightly altered): in the Commonwealth nations of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, the crimes are divided into summary offences and indictable offences . The Republic of Ireland , a former member of the Commonwealth, also uses these divisions. In some jurisdictions, those who are convicted of a misdemeanor are known as misdemeanants (as contrasted with those convicted of

875-441: The defendant's conduct is normally a misdemeanor, sometimes a repeat offender will be charged with a felony offense. For example, the first time a person commits certain crimes, such as spousal assault, it is normally a misdemeanor, but the second time it may become a felony. Other misdemeanors may be upgraded to felonies based on context. For example, in some jurisdictions the crime of indecent exposure might normally be classified as

910-487: The direction of Eustis, in 2017, The Public Theater performed a version of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar where the depiction of Julius was "Trump-like". This depiction caused two of the play's largest funders to withdraw, but Eustis did not alter the production. In defense of his play, Eustis said: "Those who attempt to defend democracy by undemocratic means pay a terrible price and destroy the very thing they are fighting to save." The 2018 Free Speech Defender Awards featured

945-745: The federal and some state governments in the United States divide misdemeanors into several classes, with certain classes punishable by jail time and others carrying only a fine. In New York law, a Class A Misdemeanor, which among other things includes the sex crime of forcible touching, carries a maximum sentence of one year of imprisonment, while a Class B Misdemeanor "shall not exceed three months". For example, Virginia has four classes of misdemeanors, with Class 1 and Class 2 misdemeanors being punishable by twelve-month and six-month jail sentences, respectively, and Class 3 and Class 4 misdemeanors being non-jail offenses payable by fines. New York has three classes of misdemeanors: A, B, and Unclassified. In

980-469: The federal government generally considers a crime punishable with incarceration for not more than one year, or lesser penalty, to be a misdemeanor. All other crimes are considered felonies. Many US states also employ the same or a similar distinction. The distinction between felonies and misdemeanors has been abolished by several common law jurisdictions, notably the UK and Australia. These jurisdictions have generally adopted some other classification (in

1015-405: The loss of a taxi driver's license after a conviction for reckless driving ), or when the misdemeanor is deemed to involve moral turpitude —and in general is evaluated on a case-by-case basis. In the United States, misdemeanors are typically crimes with a maximum punishment of 12 months of incarceration , typically in a local jail . This contrasts with felons, who are typically incarcerated in

1050-417: The material at issue in Miller's case was pornography that could have been banned under the Roth precedent. However, the Court acknowledged "the inherent dangers of undertaking to regulate any form of expression", and said that "State statutes designed to regulate obscene materials must be carefully limited." The Court, in an attempt to set such limits, devised a set of three criteria which must be met for

1085-736: The nation, including places where there is a greater concern than other areas of the nation. Enforcing and applying obscenity laws to the Internet have proven difficult. Due to the difficulty in determining which "community" is most relevant, both the Child Pornography Prevention Act (CPPA) and the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) have had sections struck down as unconstitutional in cases such as Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition and Ashcroft v. ACLU . Misdemeanor A misdemeanor ( American English , spelled misdemeanour elsewhere)

National Coalition Against Censorship - Misplaced Pages Continue

1120-458: The rights of people of all sexual orientations through the Sex and Censorship project. NCAC's online resources include CENSORPEDIA, a crowdsourced wiki for censorship incidents, and Artists Rights , a guide intended for artists and arts professionals containing explanations of art that is (and is not) protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. According to their website, their mission

1155-405: Was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court clarifying the legal definition of obscenity as material that lacks "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value". The ruling was the origin of the three-part judicial test for determining obscene media content that can be banned by government authorities, which is now known as the Miller test . In 1971, Marvin Miller, owner of

1190-439: Was deemed "obscene" and could be banned on that basis. Roth defined obscenity more strictly, as material whose "dominant theme taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest" to the "average person, applying contemporary community standards ". Only material meeting this test could now be banned as "obscene". In Jacobellis v. Ohio in 1964, about a state ban of an adult-oriented film, Justice Potter Stewart opined that

1225-516: Was the Supreme Court's first comprehensive explication of obscene material that does not qualify for First Amendment protection and thus can be banned by governmental authorities. Furthermore, due to the three-part test's stringent requirements, very few types of content can now be completely banned, and material that is appropriate for consenting adults can only be partially restricted per delivery method. The ruling had no direct impact on government attempts to restrict live adult entertainment, which

#729270