Page:Gent Magazine v. State.pdf/7

480 "Not only has the Court assumed an impossible task, that is, to make its own independent decision of the issues in obscenity cases, but, in so doing, if the opinion of Mr. Justice Brennan is followed, it must apply an absolutely impossible test, that is, the standard in such matters of the Nation as a whole.

"As a matter of fact there is no national community standard. Large cities are much more permissive, by and large, than smaller towns and farming areas, and standards vary not only according to the size of the community but according to geographical location as well.

" And to go back to population, the standard varies from one large city to another. Thus, it appears that practices are permitted in the Nation's capital which are not tolerated in New York or Chicago.

"Further examples of the fact that standards vary from one community to another come readily to mind. Consider, for instance, the State of Nevada where gambling is legalized; where prostitution flourishes openly; and where divorce is easier to obtain than almost any other place in the present-day world. Are the morals and mores of that State no different from the morals and mores of, say, New England?

"Confronted, as it is, by conflicting standards, lax in one community, strict in another, what is the Court to do? If it succeeded in imposing the standard of, say Washington, D. C., or of Reno, on the rest of the Country, it would be imposing a standard which is repugnant to perhaps a majority of the people of the Nation, particularly in the smaller towns and rural areas. And, of course, the reverse would be equally true.

"Even as regards the big cities, there is no 'community standard.' There are many and conflicting standards; and our legal institutions provide judges no