Frequently Asked Questions

Idaho:

In 1972, Idaho’s legislators clearly codified what’s defined as “obscene materials” regarding minors:  LINK

Federal laws were enacted in 2000 and state laws have been enacted to protect minors from obscenity on library computers which were upheld by SCOTUS in 2003.

SCOTUS:

The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear there is compelling interest in protecting minors from harmful materials.

Minors certainly have constitutional rights, but their rights are different from adults.  There is no constitutional reason that community libraries cannot take reasonable steps to prevent minors from accessing harmful materials.  A library policy can be crafted to protect minors without infringing on the constitutional rights of adults.

Miller Test (1973) to determine whether materials are “obscene”:

(1) whether the average person applying contemporary community standards would find the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest;

(2) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and

(3) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value

 

According to SCOTUS, applying community standards allows for different local values and that communities ought to be able to self-determine according to their local values.  Therefore, even though libraries have a legal defense that exempts them from Idaho’s minor obscenity laws (18-1517), there is no reason an elected library board cannot decide to honor the obscenity statute and ignore the exemption.