what, exactly, constitutes hard-core pornography, Stewart said "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description, and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that." The film in question was Louis Malle's The Lovers. This was modified in Memoirs v. Massachusetts (1966), in which obscenity was defined as anything patently offensive, appealing to prurient interest, and of no redeeming social value. Still, however, this left the ultimate decision of what constituted obscenity up to the whim of the courts, and did not provide an easily applicable standard for review by the lower courts. This changed in 1973 with Miller v. California. The Miller case established what came to be known as the Miller test, which clearly articulated that three criteria must be met for a work to be legitimately subject to state regulations. The Court recognized the inherent risk in legislating what constitutes obscenity, and necessarily limited the scope of the criteria. The criteria were: The average person, applying local community standards, looking at the work in its entirety, must find that it appeals to the prurient interest. The work must describe or depict, in an obviously offensive way, sexual conduct, or excretory functions. The work as a whole must lack "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific values". The third criterion pertains to judgment made by "reasonable persons" of the United States as a whole, while the first two pertain to that of members of the local community. Due to the larger scope of the third test, it is a more ambiguous criterion than the first two. In 1981, Stewart said of coining the phrase: In a way I regret having said what I said about obscenitythat's going to be on my tombstone. When I remember all of the other solid words I've written, I regret a little bit that if I'll be remembered at all I'll be remembered for that particular phrase. See also References External links Movie Day at the Supreme Court or "I Know It When I See It": A History of the Definition of Obscenity Epistemology Supreme Court of the United States United States obscenity case law American legal terminology 1964 in law 1964 in the United States Legal terminology American English idioms 1964