Memoirs v. Massachusetts
E468427
Memoirs v. Massachusetts is a 1966 U.S. Supreme Court decision that refined the legal test for obscenity under the First Amendment, further protecting controversial literary works from censorship.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Memoirs v. Massachusetts canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4758064 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Memoirs v. Massachusetts Context triple: [United States v. One Book Called Ulysses, influenced, Memoirs v. Massachusetts]
-
A.
Prince v. Massachusetts
Prince v. Massachusetts is a 1944 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld state authority to regulate child labor and limit children's religiously motivated activities in public for their protection.
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B.
McCullen v. Coakley
McCullen v. Coakley is a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down Massachusetts’ abortion-clinic buffer zone law as violating the First Amendment’s free speech protections.
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C.
Cantwell v. Connecticut
Cantwell v. Connecticut is a 1940 U.S. Supreme Court case that first applied the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause to the states, striking down a state law that improperly restricted religious proselytizing.
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D.
First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti
First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti is a landmark 1978 U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded First Amendment protections by recognizing corporations’ rights to spend money to influence ballot initiatives.
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E.
Alden v. Maine
Alden v. Maine is a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded state sovereign immunity by holding that states are generally immune from private suits for damages in their own courts under federal law.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Memoirs v. Massachusetts Target entity description: Memoirs v. Massachusetts is a 1966 U.S. Supreme Court decision that refined the legal test for obscenity under the First Amendment, further protecting controversial literary works from censorship.
-
A.
Prince v. Massachusetts
Prince v. Massachusetts is a 1944 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld state authority to regulate child labor and limit children's religiously motivated activities in public for their protection.
-
B.
McCullen v. Coakley
McCullen v. Coakley is a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down Massachusetts’ abortion-clinic buffer zone law as violating the First Amendment’s free speech protections.
-
C.
Cantwell v. Connecticut
Cantwell v. Connecticut is a 1940 U.S. Supreme Court case that first applied the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause to the states, striking down a state law that improperly restricted religious proselytizing.
-
D.
First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti
First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti is a landmark 1978 U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded First Amendment protections by recognizing corporations’ rights to spend money to influence ballot initiatives.
-
E.
Alden v. Maine
Alden v. Maine is a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded state sovereign immunity by holding that states are generally immune from private suits for damages in their own courts under federal law.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
First Amendment case
ⓘ
United States Supreme Court case ⓘ obscenity case ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs | A Book Named "John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure" v. Attorney General of Massachusetts NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
civil liberties
ⓘ
constitutional law ⓘ |
| category |
United States Supreme Court cases on freedom of expression
ⓘ
United States Supreme Court cases on obscenity ⓘ |
| chiefJusticeAtDecision | Earl Warren NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| citation | 383 U.S. 413 ⓘ |
| concurrenceBy |
Potter Stewart
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
William O. Douglas NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvision |
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1966-03-21 ⓘ |
| decisionType | plurality decision ⓘ |
| dissentBy |
Byron R. White
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
John M. Harlan II NERFINISHED ⓘ Tom C. Clark NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| fullName | Memoirs v. Massachusetts, 383 U.S. 413 (1966) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| holding |
The book at issue could not be deemed obscene under the Roth test as refined by the Court.
ⓘ
To be obscene, material must be utterly without redeeming social value. ⓘ |
| impact | expanded protection for controversial literary works from censorship ⓘ |
| issue | Whether the book "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure" could be banned as obscene. ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| languageOfProceeding | English ⓘ |
| legalSubject |
freedom of speech
ⓘ
freedom of the press ⓘ obscenity law ⓘ |
| legalTestElement |
The dominant theme of the material taken as a whole must appeal to a prurient interest in sex.
ⓘ
The material must be patently offensive because it affronts contemporary community standards relating to the description or representation of sexual matters. ⓘ The material must be utterly without redeeming social value. ⓘ |
| limitedByCase | Miller v. California NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | William J. Brennan Jr. NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| pageInUnitedStatesReports | 413 ⓘ |
| petitioner | A Book Named "John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure" NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| pluralityOpinionBy | William J. Brennan Jr. NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| precedentFor | later obscenity jurisprudence under the First Amendment ⓘ |
| refinedTestFromCase | Roth v. United States NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| relatedAuthor | John Cleland NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| relatedWork | Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| respondent | Attorney General of Massachusetts NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| result | Massachusetts judgment declaring the book obscene was reversed ⓘ |
| stateParty | Commonwealth of Massachusetts NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| subjectMatter | censorship of sexually explicit literature ⓘ |
| timePeriod | Warren Court NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| volumeInUnitedStatesReports | 383 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Memoirs v. Massachusetts Description of subject: Memoirs v. Massachusetts is a 1966 U.S. Supreme Court decision that refined the legal test for obscenity under the First Amendment, further protecting controversial literary works from censorship.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.