United States v. Thevis’s Empirical Analysis
484 F.2d 1149 · 1973
Citation profile
49 federal appellate · 21 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 81 later decisions (3 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2019 · most notably Hamling v. United States (1974), Marks v. United States (1977)
49 federal appellate · 21 state decisions — followed in 13 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 18 U.S.C. § 1462
Relies on Roth v. United States · Miller v. California · Stanley v. Georgia · Smith v. People of the State of California · Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 81 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[N]o one is [to be] convicted under earlier extant standards if they are more restrictive of pornography than those in Miller. . . . [W]e shall consider both the Miller and Memoirs definitions of obscenity.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(1) The dominant theme of the material, taken as a whole must appeal to a prurient interest in sex; (2) the materials must be patently offensive because they affront contemporary community standards relating to description or representation of sexual matters; (3) the material must be utterly without socially redeeming value. The Miller standard is as follows: (1) The average person, applying contemporary community standards would find that the work taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest; (2) the materials are patently offensive depictions or descriptions of sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable statute; (3) taken as a whole the materials must lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““(a) Patently offensive representations or descriptions of ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated. “(b) Patently offensive representations or descriptions of masturbation, excretory functions, and lewd exhibition of the genitals.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.