The Adult Bookstore Clerks

Two clerks at adult bookstores each sold magazines to undercover police detectives. Each was charged with obscenity and tried separately. At trial the juries were told to decide whether the magazines had serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value by asking how ordinary adults across the whole state would view them. Both clerks were convicted. They argue the instruction was wrong: whether a work has serious value should not depend on local community taste but on what a reasonable person would find.