ABSTRACT
In National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley, 524 US 569, the US Supreme Court held that decency and respect standards may be imposed on works of art receiving funding from the federal government without interfering with First Amendment rights to free expression. Two late 1980s photography exhibitions caused such a furore with a portion of the public that a congressional group called for the abolishment of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)-which had partially funded the exhibits-and a group of twenty- two senators sent the NEA a letter demanding that the agency decline to fund this type of work. One exhibit-sponsored by a North Carolina contemporary arts group-included Andres Serrano's photograph depicting a crucifix immersed in a jar of urine, entitled "Piss Christ." The other, sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania's Institute of Art, consisted of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe of which a few caused controversies due to their depiction of homoerotic and sadomasochistic themes among biracial couples.
