Quote:
Originally Posted by frquixote
Sorry, but the First Amendment says:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. "
I don't see anything that says Congress was involved in this decision. Further, the Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the right of local communities to establish and maintain community standards.
I really do wish people would READ the Bill of Rights.
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I really with people would UNDERSTAND the Bill of Rights.
The First Amendment applies to the states through the 14th Amendment. If it didn't, states would be able to do things like prohibit people from going to church.
The only relevance that "community standards" have to the first amendment is as part of the legal definition of *obscenity*. A work is obscene if, and only if, three conditions are met: (1) Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value; (2) whether the work depicts/describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law; and (3) whether "the average person, applying contemporary community standards", would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest.
This has no application to "Slaughterhouse Five." In fact, the whole *purpose* of the free speech clause is to *protect* speech from community standards. You need constitutional rights when the community tries to prevent you from reading or watching something. If the community all thinks that "Lassie" is a great book, you don't need the First Amendment to be able to read it. It's only when the community doesn't like the book that you need the First Amendment.