Superior Films v. Department of Education of State of Ohio, Division of Film Censorship Commercial Pictures Corporation v. Regents of University of State of New York, Nos. 217
| Court | United States Supreme Court |
| Writing for the Court | PER CURIAM; DOUGLAS |
| Citation | 74 S.Ct. 286,98 L.Ed. 329,346 U.S. 587 |
| Parties | SUPERIOR FILMS, Inc., Appellant, v. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION OF STATE OF OHIO, DIVISION OF FILM CENSORSHIP, Clyde Hissong, Supt. COMMERCIAL PICTURES CORPORATION, Appellant, v. REGENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF STATE OF NEW YORK |
| Decision Date | 18 January 1954 |
| Docket Number | 274,Nos. 217 |
v.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION OF STATE OF OHIO, DIVISION OF FILM CENSORSHIP, Clyde Hissong, Supt. COMMERCIAL PICTURES CORPORATION, Appellant, v. REGENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF STATE OF NEW YORK.
Supreme Court of the United States
Page 588
PER CURIAM.
The judgments are reversed. Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, 343 U.S. 495, 72 S.Ct. 777, 96 L.Ed. 1098.
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'.1 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. State of Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697, 51 S.Ct. 625, 626, 75 L.Ed. 1357. The 'chief purpose' of the constitutional guaranty of liberty of the press, said the Court, was 'to prevent previous restraints upon publication.' 283 US. at page 713, 51 S.Ct. at page 630.
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 irreconciable 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
Page 589
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, 65 S.Ct. 315, 327, 89 L.Ed. 430. 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, 72 S.Ct. 777, 780, 781, 96 L.Ed. 1098, that motion pictures are 'within the free...
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