Also known as: lasciviously · lasciviousness · lewd
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Conduct or material tending to excite lust. The term identifies behavior or expression that is lewd, indecent, or obscene under applicable legal standards.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Leo Lynch hosted dozens of guests inside a boarded-up farmhouse with no furniture or utilities. Officers observed open drug use and lascivious conduct among the partygoers. The visible abandonment and the nature of the activities supplied probable cause to arrest for unlawful entry.
Latoya Lane burned a cross on a Black family's lawn. City officials charged her under an ordinance targeting only the most patently offensive lascivious displays within the broader category of fighting words. The selective prohibition raised a First Amendment viewpoint-discrimination claim.
Lillian Locke, an adult woman, engaged in intercourse with a minor male. California law punished the male participant but not the female for the same act. The statutory scheme treated lascivious conduct with minors as part of a broader protective regime applying to both sexes.
Lola Langley published a periodical containing lascivious photographs and stories. State officials sought to enjoin the business as a public nuisance under a statute targeting obscene and lewd periodicals. The publisher challenged the injunction as prior restraint.
Luis Lopez mailed advertisements for films depicting lascivious sexual conduct. Prosecutors charged him under a state obscenity statute limited to works that appeal to the prurient interest and lack serious value. The jury applied contemporary community standards to the material.
Laura Lewis displayed a banner at a school event containing a phrase interpreted as promoting lascivious drug use. School officials suspended her for violating the district's policy against plainly offensive speech. The student sued claiming First Amendment protection.
Officers may infer unauthorized entry from the presence of lascivious conduct inside an apparently abandoned property. The totality of circumstances, including barren premises and drug use, supports the inference that the gathering lacks permission.
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A content-neutral reason for regulating an entire class of speech permits distinctions within the class based on the degree of lasciviousness. Viewpoint discrimination remains forbidden even when the most extreme displays are targeted.
…of speech, the prevention and punishment of which have never been thought to raise any Constitutional problem. These include the lewd and obscene, the profane, the libelous, and the insulting or fighting' words—those which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace. It has…
…to prohibit only that obscenity which is the most patently offensive in its prurience — i. e. , that which involves the most lascivious
…or customarily producing, publishing or circulating, having in possession, selling or giving away. (a) an obscene, lewd and lascivious
…actual or simulated; and (b) patently offensive representations or descriptions of masturbation, excretory functions, and lewd exhibition of the genitals. These examples are illustrative and not exhaustive. Sex and nudity may not be exploited without limit in places of public accommodation any more than live sex…
…contribute to the delinquency of anyone under 18 years of age.[^maj-2] All persons are prohibited from committing "any
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Statutes criminalizing lewd or lascivious acts with children under fourteen apply to any person regardless of sex. A broader scheme may also punish aiding and abetting or deviant acts involving minors of either sex.
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A statute may declare the regular business of publishing an obscene, lewd, and lascivious periodical a nuisance subject to injunction. The characterization turns on the character of the material rather than its political content.
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Material is obscene only if it depicts sexual conduct in a patently offensive way as defined by state law. Lasciviousness supplies the patently offensive element when judged by contemporary community standards.
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Schools possess authority to prohibit plainly offensive or lewd student expression at school-sponsored events. The restriction advances the pedagogical interest in teaching appropriate boundaries of expression.
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