Joseph Burstyn, Inc v. Wilson
Encyclopedia
Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, 343 U.S. 495
(1952), was a landmark decision
by the United States Supreme Court
which largely marked the decline of motion picture censorship
in the United States. It determined that certain provisions of the New York
Education Law allowing a censor to forbid the commercial showing of any non-licensed motion picture film, or revoke or deny the license of a film deemed to be "sacrilegious
," was a "restraint on freedom of speech
" and thereby a violation of the First Amendment
. By way of this, the decision defined film
as an artistic medium protected by the Constitution
's guarantee of free speech
. In so doing, the Court overturned its previous decision in Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio
(1915), which found that movies were not an art form worthy of First Amendment protection, but merely a business.
following the rescinding of the license allowing the exhibition of the short film "The Miracle". Burstyn was the distributor of the subtitled English versions in the U.S., and the movie was directed by Italian neorealist
film director Roberto Rossellini
. The film's plot centered around a man, "Saint Joseph" (played by director Federico Fellini
), who villainously impregnates
"Nanni" (Anna Magnani
), a disturbed peasant who believes herself to be the Virgin Mary. Fellini and Rossellini also co-wrote the script for "The Miracle".
"The Miracle" originally premiered in Europe in 1948 as the anthology film
L'Amore
with two segments, "Il Miracolo" and "La voce umana", the latter based on Jean Cocteau
's play The Human Voice
and also starring Magnani. The film was first shown in New York in November 1950, presented under the title Ways of Love, with English subtitles. In December, Ways of Love was voted the best foreign language film of 1950 by the New York Film Critics Circle.
"The Miracle" in particular sparked widespread moral outrage, and was criticized as "vile, harmful and blasphemous." Protesters in Paris picketed the film with vitriolic signs carrying messages like "This Picture Is an Insult to Every Decent Woman and Her Mother," "Don't Be a Communist
," and "Don't Enter the Cesspool."
After its American release, The New York State Board of Regents
reportedly received "hundreds of letters, telegrams, post cards, affidavit
s and other communications" contrastingly protesting and defending the exhibition of the film. Three members of the Board were subsequently ordered to examine it; they concluded that The Miracle was "sacrilegious" and directed the appellants to show otherwise at a hearing. The hearing determined that it was indeed religious bigotry and on February 16, 1951, the Commissioner of Education
was ordered to rescind the picture's license.
The Appellant brought this decision to the New York
courts for review, on the grounds that the statute "violates the First Amendment
as a prior restraint
upon freedom of speech and of the press," "that it is invalid under the same Amendment as a violation of the guaranty of separate church and state
and as a prohibition of the free exercise of religion," and "that the term 'sacrilegious' is so vague and indefinite as to offend due process."
(N. Y. Education Law, §
122) in question that forbade the exhibition of unlicensed films read:
The paragraph allowing the repeal of "sacrilegious" films' license read:
Case citation
Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...
(1952), was a landmark decision
Landmark decision
Landmark court decisions establish new precedents that establish a significant new legal principle or concept, or otherwise substantially change the interpretation of existing law...
by the United States Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
which largely marked the decline of motion picture censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
in the United States. It determined that certain provisions of the New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
Education Law allowing a censor to forbid the commercial showing of any non-licensed motion picture film, or revoke or deny the license of a film deemed to be "sacrilegious
Sacrilege
Sacrilege is the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object. In a less proper sense, any transgression against the virtue of religion would be a sacrilege. It can come in the form of irreverence to sacred persons, places, and things...
," was a "restraint on freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
" and thereby a violation of the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
. By way of this, the decision defined film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
as an artistic medium protected by the Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
's guarantee of free speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
. In so doing, the Court overturned its previous decision in Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio
Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio
Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio, 236 U.S. 230 , was a court case decided by the United States Supreme Court in 1915, in which, in a 9-0 vote, the Court ruled that the free speech protection of the Ohio Constitution — which was substantially similar to the First...
(1915), which found that movies were not an art form worthy of First Amendment protection, but merely a business.
Background
The case was appealed to the Supreme Court by film distributor Joseph BurstynJoseph Burstyn
Joseph Burstyn was a U.S. film distributor who specialized in the commercial release of foreign-language and American independent film productions. Born in Poland, he arrived in the U.S...
following the rescinding of the license allowing the exhibition of the short film "The Miracle". Burstyn was the distributor of the subtitled English versions in the U.S., and the movie was directed by Italian neorealist
Italian neorealism
Italian neorealism is a style of film characterized by stories set amongst the poor and working class, filmed on location, frequently using nonprofessional actors...
film director Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Rossellini was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Rossellini was one of the directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing films such as Roma città aperta to the movement.-Early life:Born in Rome, Roberto Rossellini lived on the Via Ludovisi, where Benito Mussolini had...
. The film's plot centered around a man, "Saint Joseph" (played by director Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
), who villainously impregnates
Pregnancy
Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
"Nanni" (Anna Magnani
Anna Magnani
Anna Magnani was an Italian stage and film actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress, along with four other international awards, for her portrayal of a Sicilian widow in The Rose Tattoo....
), a disturbed peasant who believes herself to be the Virgin Mary. Fellini and Rossellini also co-wrote the script for "The Miracle".
"The Miracle" originally premiered in Europe in 1948 as the anthology film
Anthology film
An anthology film is a feature film consisting of several different short films, often tied together by only a single theme, premise, or brief interlocking event . Sometimes each one is directed by a different director...
L'Amore
L'Amore (film)
L'Amore is an anthology film directed by Roberto Rossellini starring Anna Magnani and Federico Fellini. The two segments are "Il Miracolo" and "Una Voce Umana", the latter based on the play The Human Voice by Jean Cocteau...
with two segments, "Il Miracolo" and "La voce umana", the latter based on Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
's play The Human Voice
The Human Voice
The Human Voice a 1930 play, first staged at the Comédie Française in 1930, written by Jean Cocteau, is a monologue taking place in Paris, where a middle-aged woman is on a phone call with her lover of the last five years. He is to marry another woman the next day, which causes her to despair...
and also starring Magnani. The film was first shown in New York in November 1950, presented under the title Ways of Love, with English subtitles. In December, Ways of Love was voted the best foreign language film of 1950 by the New York Film Critics Circle.
"The Miracle" in particular sparked widespread moral outrage, and was criticized as "vile, harmful and blasphemous." Protesters in Paris picketed the film with vitriolic signs carrying messages like "This Picture Is an Insult to Every Decent Woman and Her Mother," "Don't Be a Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
," and "Don't Enter the Cesspool."
After its American release, The New York State Board of Regents
University of the State of New York
The University of the State of New York is the State of New York's governmental umbrella organization responsible for most institutions and people in any way connected with formal educational functions, public and private, in New York State...
reportedly received "hundreds of letters, telegrams, post cards, affidavit
Affidavit
An affidavit is a written sworn statement of fact voluntarily made by an affiant or deponent under an oath or affirmation administered by a person authorized to do so by law. Such statement is witnessed as to the authenticity of the affiant's signature by a taker of oaths, such as a notary public...
s and other communications" contrastingly protesting and defending the exhibition of the film. Three members of the Board were subsequently ordered to examine it; they concluded that The Miracle was "sacrilegious" and directed the appellants to show otherwise at a hearing. The hearing determined that it was indeed religious bigotry and on February 16, 1951, the Commissioner of Education
New York State Education Department
The New York State Education Department is the state education department in New York. It is part of the University of the State of New York , one of the most complete, interconnected systems of educational services in the United States...
was ordered to rescind the picture's license.
The Appellant brought this decision to the New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
courts for review, on the grounds that the statute "violates the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
as a prior restraint
Prior restraint
Prior restraint or prior censorship is censorship in which certain material may not be published or communicated, rather than not prohibiting publication but making the publisher answerable for what is made known...
upon freedom of speech and of the press," "that it is invalid under the same Amendment as a violation of the guaranty of separate church and state
Establishment Clause of the First Amendment
The Establishment Clause is the first of several pronouncements in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, stating, Together with the Free Exercise Clause The Establishment Clause is the first of several pronouncements in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,...
and as a prohibition of the free exercise of religion," and "that the term 'sacrilegious' is so vague and indefinite as to offend due process."
Relevant statute provisions
The part of the statuteStatute
A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs a state, city, or county. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. The word is often used to distinguish law made by legislative bodies from case law, decided by courts, and regulations...
(N. Y. Education Law, §
Section sign
The section sign , also called the "double S", "sectional symbol" or signum sectiōnis, is a typographical character used mainly to refer to a particular section of a document, such as a legal code. It is frequently used along with the pilcrow , or paragraph sign...
122) in question that forbade the exhibition of unlicensed films read:
[It is unlawful] to exhibit, or to sell, lease or lend for exhibition at any place of amusement for pay or in connection with any business in the state of New York, any motion picture film or reel [with specified exceptions not relevant here], unless there is at the time in full force and effect a valid license or permit therefor of the education department...
The paragraph allowing the repeal of "sacrilegious" films' license read:
The director of the [motion picture] division [of the education department] or, when authorized by the regents, the officers of a local office or bureau shall cause to be promptly examined every motion picture film submitted to them as herein required, and unless such film or a part thereof is obscene, indecent, immoral, inhuman, sacrilegious, or is of such a character that its exhibition would tend to corrupt morals or incite to crime, shall issue a license therefor. If such director or, when so authorized, such officer shall not license any film submitted, he shall furnish to the applicant therefor a written report of the reasons for his refusal and a description of each rejected part of a film not rejected in toto.
Still-existing laws
Despite this case having made them unenforceable, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Wyoming, and Pennsylvania still have blasphemy laws on the books.See also
- List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 343
- Freedman v. MarylandFreedman v. MarylandFreedman v. Maryland, , is a United States Supreme Court case that ended government-operated rating boards with a decision that a rating board could only approve a film and had no power to ban a film. The ruling also concluded that a rating board must either approve a film within a reasonable time,...