I know it when I see it

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The phrase "I know it when I see it" is a colloquial expression by which the user attempts to categorize an observable fact or event, although the category is subjective or lacks clearly-defined parameters. This phrase is best known as a description of a threshold of obscenity, no longer used, which is not protected speech under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Exhibition of obscene material may be a criminal offense. The phrase notably appeared in Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964), decided by the United States Supreme Court.

“ 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. [Emphasis added.]		 ”
 
— Justice Potter Stewart, concurring opinion in Jacobellis v. Ohio 378 U.S. 184 (1964), regarding possible obscenity in The Lovers

This expression became "one of the most famous phrases in the entire history" of the Supreme Court.[1]

Stewart's "I know it when I see it" standard was praised as an example of "candor"[2] and "realistic and gallant",[3] though it has been criticized for its lack of concreteness.

In 1994, Max van der Stoel, the High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), stated in his address at the opening of the OSCE Minorities Seminar in Warsaw: "I won't offer you [a definition] of my own. (...) I would dare to say that I know a minority when I see one. First of all, a minority is a group with linguistic, ethnic or cultural characteristics, which distinguish it from the majority. Secondly, a minority is a group which usually not only seeks to maintain its identity but also tries to give stronger expression to that identity".[4]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Paul Gewirtz, "On 'I Know It When I See It'", Yale Law Journal, Vol. 105, pp. 1023-1047 (1996)
  2. ^ Richard A. Posner, Law and Literature: A Misunderstood Relation p.308 (1988)
  3. ^ Harry Kalven, Jr., A Worthy Tradition: Freedom of Speech in America, p.40 (1988)
  4. ^ http://www.osce.org/hcnm/13022.html

[edit] External links

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