Pope v. Illinois

In Miller v. California, 413 U. S. 15 (1973), the Court set out a tripartite test for judging whether material is obscene. The third prong of the Miller test requires the trier of fact to determine “whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.” Id., at 24. The issue in this case is whether, in a prosecution for *499the sale of allegedly obscene materials, the jury may be instructed to apply community standards in deciding the value question.

I

On July 21, 1983, Rockford, Illinois, police detectives purchased certain magazines from the two…