Student Paper For a Constitutional Law Course

Student Paper For a Constitutional Law CourseAn instructor of a college-level Constitutional Law course will expect his students to put a sample essay answer for obscenity on their syllabus in the course's FAQs. This is a common requirement of many universities and colleges. So, why is the faculty advisor requiring students to do this?Okay, so you've read about this and it seems kind of unfair. Why? To begin with, the writer obviously does not understand what a work of art is. What is art?You need a definition. A work of art is not a sculpture, or a painting, or a painting that requires an artist. A work of art is a narrative or piece of writing that has meaning and is intended to be artistic in nature. If the Supreme Court says that obscenity has no artistic value, that's their opinion. It isn't the legal opinion of the Supreme Court.In a decision handed down by the Supreme Court in the Miller vs. California case, the court made a decision in favor of the creators of pornographic ma terials (the X-rated ones) in that they were not limited to two minutes or even two hours in length in advertisements and TV commercials. They could run for twenty-five minutes in a magazine. Therefore, if your student wants to do an essay answer for obscenity, the sample essay answer for obscenity needs to include examples of works of art or longer works of written literature as well. And it needs to have to be a 'Thematic Essay' with all the art and literature from all the different genres included.One major problem is that there are too many categories of literature, movies, and videos. There are Christian movies, ones that deal with subject matters related to the First Amendment. There are even some movies that deal with the Second Amendment and Christian values.That leads into another issue with the fact that the sample essay answers for obscenity can only be used in college. Some faculty advisors allow for limited use on a case-by-case basis. If they require a student to write a 'Thematic Essay' then this could also be a problem because many courses have time restrictions. So, if the question is that should all essay answers for obscenity for all the works of art, movies, and movies to be used, and the sample essay answer for obscenity requires a Thematic Essay... then that could be an issue.It would seem to me that a Constitutional Law course that deals with the freedom of speech and obscenity should involve discussing many of these same issues with students in the same class. This is one way of doing it: make a small sampling of questions for each group. Then have the students do the 'Thematic Essay' question with the works of art, movies, and speeches from these samples.These are just a few ideas that I think should be looked at. I invite your thoughts and welcome your comments.