Forty Years of “P*** Christ:” The Shock That Changed America—But Not the Artist
Although “Piss Christ” never reached the Supreme Court, the controversy helped lead to the 1998 case National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley. The Court ruled that while artists have broad First Amendment rights to create controversial work, they do not have a constitutional right to taxpayer funding. The lasting debate wasn’t whether Serrano could make the photograph—it was whether the public should have to help pay for it.