Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

Obscenity

n. 1. The quality or state of being morally abhorrent or socially taboo, esp. as a result of referring to or depicting sexual or excretory functions. 2. Something (such as an expression or act) that has this quality. See CONTEMPORARY COMMUNITY STANDARD. Cf INDECENCY. "Obscenity is not deemed to be protected by the First Amendment, and the operative legal tests for obscenity are spongy and leave much to the vagaries of juries asked to evaluate expert testimony on literary merit, offensiveness, and other unmeasurables." Richard A. Posner, Law and Literature: A Misunderstood Relation 329 (1988).