Since the adoption of the First Amendment the Supreme Court of the United States has struggled to define what is obscene. In 1873 the Comstock Act was adopted in the wake of the civil war (Pember 439). The Comstock Act was criticized for being too strict, to the point where freedom of speech was being restricted. The Hicklin rule was an attempt to define what was considered obscene under the Comstock Act. Under the Hicklin rule a …showed first 75 words of 1428 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1428 total…tell someone what is obscene and thus illegal is an opinion as illustrated in the following quotation, "What is pornography to one man is the laughter of genius to another (Lawrence, as cited in, asc.upenn). This is a form of free speech and should be limited considering children, but because of the medium in which this material is produced and provided to the public limiting it should be a violation of the First Amendment.