Exciting enhancements are coming soon to eCode360! Learn more 🡪
Borough of Morrisville, PA
Bucks County
By using eCode360 you agree to be legally bound by the Terms of Use. If you do not agree to the Terms of Use, please do not use eCode360.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
[HISTORY: Adopted by the Borough Council of the Borough of Morrisville as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Police Department — See Ch. 80.
Adult entertainment — See Ch. 106.
Amusements — See Ch. 114.
Circulars and handbills — See Ch. 148.
Littering — See Ch. 272.
Disorderly conduct — See Ch. 312.
Zoning — See Ch. 465.
[Adopted 5-14-1985 by Ord. No. 800]
A. 
As used in this article, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
AUDIENCE
One or more persons who are permitted to view a performance for valuable consideration or in or from a public place.
DISPLAY PUBLICLY
Exposing, placing, posting, exhibiting, or in any other fashion displaying in any location, whether public or private, material or a performance in such a manner that it may be readily seen and its content or character distinguished by viewing it in or from a public place or vehicle.
DISSEMINATE
Manufacture, issue, publish, sell, lend, distribute, transmit, broadcast, exhibit or present material or to offer or agree to do the same, or to have in one's possession with intent to do the same.
LEWD MATERIAL
Any material or performance in which all of the following elements are present:
(1) 
Considered as a whole, by the average person, applying the contemporary community standards of the Borough of Morrisville, it appeals to the prurient interest in sex; and
(2) 
It depicts, describes or represents in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct, as hereinafter defined; and
(3) 
Taken as a whole, it lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific values.
MATERIAL
Any printed matter, visual representation, or sound recording, including, but not limited to books, magazines, motion picture films, pamphlets, newspapers, pictures, photographs, drawings, three-dimensional forms, sculptures, and phonograph, tape or wire recordings.
NUDITY
Uncovered, or less than opaquely covered, post-pubertal human genitals or pubic area, the post-pubertal human female breast below a point immediately above the top of the areola or the covered human male genitals in a discernibly turgid state. For the purpose of this definition, a female breast is considered uncovered if the nipple only or the nipple and the areola only are covered.
PANDER
Advertising or propagandizing in connection with the sale of material, the offering of a service, or the presentation or exhibition of a performance by appealing to the prurient interest of potential customers.
PERFORMANCE
Any live or reproduced exhibition including but not limited to any play, motion picture film, dance or appearance presented to or performed before an audience.
PERSON
Any individual, partnership, firm, association, corporation or other legal entity.
PRURIENT INTEREST
Desire or craving for sexual stimulation or gratification. In determining prurient interest, the material or performance shall be judged with reference to average persons, unless it appears from the character of the material or performance that it is designed to appeal to the prurient interest of a particular group of persons, including but not limited to, homosexuals or sado-masochists. In that case, it shall be judged with reference to the particular group for which it was designed.
PUBLIC PLACE OR VEHICLE
Any street, alley, park, boulevard, school or other public property in the Borough of Morrisville, or any dance hall, rental hall, theater, amusement park, liquor establishment, store, depot, place of public accommodation, or other private property generally frequented by the public for the purposes of education, recreation, amusement, entertainment, sport, shopping or travel; or any vehicle for public transportation, owned or operated by the government, either directly or through a public corporation or authority, or owned or operated by any non-governmental agency for the use, enjoyment or transportation of the general public.
SADO-MASOCHISTIC ABUSE
Flagellation or torture by or upon a person who is nude or clad in undergarments or in a sexually revealing or bizarre costume, or the condition of such person being fettered, bound or otherwise physically restrained, in an apparent act of sexual stimulation or gratification.
SEXUAL CONDUCT
(1) 
Masturbation;
(2) 
Sexual intercourse, whether genital-genital, oral-genital, oral-anal, or anal-genital;
(3) 
Any erotic fondling or touching of the covered or uncovered genitals, buttocks, pubic area, or any part of the breasts of the female, whether the conduct described in Subsections A through C is engaged in alone or between members of the same or opposite sex, or between humans and animals or humans and inanimate objects;
(4) 
Actual or simulated display or exhibition of the human pubic area or gentials or any part thereof;
(5) 
Sexual excitement, as hereinafter defined; or
(6) 
Sado-masochistic abuse as herein defined.
SEXUAL EXCITEMENT
The facial expressions, movements, utterances or any other physical responses of a human male or female, whether alone or with others, whether clothed or not, who is in an apparent state of sexual stimulation or arousal, or experiencing the physical or sensual reactions of humans engaging in or witnessing sexual conduct.
B. 
As used in this article, the masculine shall include the feminine and neuter.
It shall be unlawful for any person, to disseminate and/or promote and/or display publicly lewd material in the Borough of Morrisville. A person shall be guilty of the offense of disseminating and/or promoting and/or displaying publicly lewd material, if, knowing its content and character, he:
A. 
Disseminates or causes to be disseminated any lewd material in or from a public place or vehicle, or for valuable consideration; or has in his possession any lewd material with intent to so disseminate; or knowingly allows the use of any business, building, vehicle or place owned, leased, conducted or managed by him, for such dissemination of lewd material;
B. 
Sells an admission ticket, or pass to premises where there is being exhibited or is about to be exhibited lewd material or a performance which contains lewd material;
C. 
Admits, by accepting a ticket or pass, a person to premises where there is being exhibited or is about to be exhibited material or a performance which contains lewd material;
D. 
Produces, presents, directs, or knowingly allows the use of any business, building, vehicle or place, owned, leased, conducted or managed by him to be used for a performance which contains lewd material before an audience;
E. 
Participates in that portion of a live performance before an audience which makes the performance contain lewd material; or
F. 
Panders, displays publicly, or disseminates door to door, any lewd material, or causes such pandering, public display or door-to-door dissemination.
Any person who shall violate this article shall, upon conviction thereof, be sentenced to pay a fine of not more than $300, together with costs of prosecution, or to imprisonment for a term not to exceed 30 days. Each day a violation of this article continues shall constitute a separate offense.