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The phrase was used in 1964 by United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart to describe his threshold test for obscenity in Jacobellis v. Ohio. In explaining why the material at issue in the case was not obscene under the Roth test, and therefore was protected speech that could not be censored, Stewart wrote:
Potter Stewart (1915–1985), associate justice of the Supreme Court from 1958 to 1981, is frequently remembered for his famous nondefinition of obscenity: “I know it when I see it.”
Ohio, in which a theater owner had been fined for showing a supposedly obscene film. Early life and education. Stewart was born in Jackson, Michigan, while his family was on vacation. He was the son of Harriett L. (Potter) and James Garfield Stewart.
Feb 27, 2024 · In his concurring opinion in the 1964 Jacobellis v. Ohio case, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart delivered what has become the most well-known line related to the detection of “hard-core” pornography: the infamous “I know it when I see it.” statement.
When Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart was asked to describe his test for obscenity in 1964, he responded: "I know it when I see it." But do we? What is pornography and how has it changed over the last two and a half centuries?
In one of his more well-known opinions in the obscenity case Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964), Justice Stewart famously said that while he could not readily define the term “hard-core” pornography, “I know it when I see it.” Justice Stewart stepped down from the Court in July of 1981.
Sep 27, 2007 · Among them was the characterization of pornography by Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart (pictured): "I know it when I see it" (Jacobellis v. Ohio, 1964).
