SUPERIOR FILMS, INC.
v.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION OF OHIO, DIVISION OF FILM CENSORSHIP, HISSONG, SUPERINTENDENT
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Per Curiam.
The judgments are reversed. Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, 343 U. S. 495.
Mr. Justice Douglas,
with whom Mr. Justice Black agrees,
concurring.
The argument of Ohio and New York that the government may establish censorship over moving pictures is one I cannot accept. In 1925 Minnesota passed a law aimed at suppressing before publication any “malicious, scandalous and defamatory newspaper.” The Court, speaking through Chief Justice Hughes, struck down that law as violating the Fourteenth Amendment, which has made the First Amendment applicable to the States. Near v. Minnesota, 283 U. S. 697. The “chief purpose” of the constitutional guaranty of liberty of the press, said the Court, was “to prevent previous restraints upon publication.” Id., p. 713.
The history of censorship is so well known it need not be summarized here. Certainly a system, still in force in some nations, which required a newspaper to submit to a board its news items, editorials, and cartoons before it published them could not be sustained. Nor could book publishers be required to submit their novels, poems, and tracts to censors for clearance before publication. Any such scheme of censorship would be in irreconcilable conflict with the language and purpose of the First Amendment.
Nor is it conceivable to me that producers of plays for the legitimate theatre or for television could be required to submit their manuscripts to censors on pain of penalty for producing them without approval. Certainly the spoken word is as freely protected against prior restraints as that which is written. Such indeed is the force of our decision in Thomas v. Collins, 323 U. S. 516, 540. The freedom of the platform which it espouses carries with it freedom of the stage.
The same result in the case of motion pictures necessarily follows as a consequence of our holding in Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, 343 U. S. 495, 502, that motion pictures are “within the free speech and free press guaranty of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.”
Motion pictures are of course a different medium of expression than the public speech, the radio, the stage, the novel, or the magazine. But the First Amendment draws no distinction between the various methods of communicating ideas. On occasion one may be more powerful or effective than another. The movie, like the public speech, radio, or television, is transitory — here now and gone in an instant. The novel, the short story, the poem in printed form are permanently at hand to reenact the drama or to retell the story over and again. Which medium will give the most excitement and have the most enduring effect will vary with the theme and the actors. It is not for the censor to determine in any case. The First and the Fourteenth Amendments say that Congress and the States shall make “no law” which abridges freedom of speech or of the press. In order to sanction a system of censorship I would have to say that “no law” does not mean what it says, that “no law” is qualified to mean “some” laws. I cannot take that step.
In this Nation every writer, actor, or producer, no matter what medium of expression he may use, should be freed from the censor.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By (19 total)
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Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (U.S. 1973)…43, 78; Smith v. California, 361 U. S. 147, 167; Kingsley Pictures Corp. v. Regents, 360 U. S. 684, 697; Roth v. United States, 354 U. S. 476, 508; Kings-ley Books, Inc. v. Brown, 354 U. S. 436, 446; Superior Films, Inc. v. Department of Education, 346 U. S. 587, 588; Gelling v. Texas, 343 U. S. 960. The Commission on Obscenity and Pornography has advocated such a procedure: “The Commission recommends the enactment, in all jurisdictions which enact or retain provisions prohibiting the dissemination of sex…
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Shelton v. Tucker, 364 U.S. 479 (U.S. 1960)…Jones v. Opelika, 319 U. S. 103, vacating 316 U. S. 584 (the Opelika ordinance); Niemotko v. Maryland, 340 U. S. 268; Joseph Burstyn, Inc., v. Wilson, 343 U. S. 495; Gelling v. Texas, 343 U. S. 960; Superior Films, Inc., v. Department of Education, 346 U. S. 587; Staub v. Baxley, 355 U. S. 313; cf. Marsh v. Alabama, 326 U. S. 501; Tucker v. Texas, 326 U. S. 517. The common-law count in the Cantwell case involved considerations similar to those which were determinative of the decisions cited in text and note…
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Freedman v. Maryland, 380 U.S. 51 (U.S. 1965)…r. Justice Black joins, concurring. On several occasions I have indicated my view that movies are entitled to the same degree and kind of protection under the First Amendment as other forms of expression. Superior Films v. Department of Education, 346 U. S. 587, 588; Kingsley Pictures Corp. v. Regents, 360 U. S. 684, 697; Times Film Corp. v. Chicago, 365 U. S. 43, 78.* For the reasons there stated, I do not [*62] believe any form of censorship — no matter how speedy or prolonged it may be — is permissible.…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Near v. Minnesota Ex rel. Olson, 283 U.S. 697 (U.S. 1931)
- Thomas v. Collins, 323 U.S. 516 (U.S. 1945)
- Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, 343 U.S. 495 (U.S. 1952)