The Miller Test is the primary legal test for determining whether expression constitutes obscenity. It is named after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Miller v. California (1973). The Miller test faced its greatest challenge with online obscenity cases. In Ashcroft v. ACLU (2002), a case challenging the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act, several justices questioned the constitutionality of applying the local community standards of Miller to speech on the Internet. In this photo, Associate Legal Director of the ACLU Ann Beeson gestures during a news conference outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday, March 2, 2004 in Washington. The ACLU claimed COPA violated the First Amendment guarantee of free speech. They challenged the law on behalf of online bookstores, artists and others, including operators of Web sites that offer explicit how-to sex advice or health information. The Supreme Court agreed with the lower court’s ruling that COPA did not pass the strict scrutiny test used to judge obscenity cases. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, used with permission from the Associated Press)
