| Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Argued April 24, 1952 Decided May 26, 1952 | |
| Full case name | Joseph Burstyn, Incorporated v. Wilson, Commissioner of Education of New York, et al. |
| Citations | 343 U.S. 495 (more) 72 S. Ct. 777; 96 L. Ed. 1098; 1952 U.S. LEXIS 2796; 1 Media L. Rep. 1357 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | 278 A.D. 253, 104 N.Y.S.2d 740 (App. Div. 1951), affirmed, 303 N.Y. 242, 101 N.E.2d 665 (1951). |
| Holding | |
| Provisions of the New York Education Law that allow 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", were a "restraint on freedom of speech", and thereby a violation of the 1st Amendment. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Clark, joined by Vinson, Black, Douglas, Burton, Minton |
| Concurrence | Reed (in judgment) |
| Concurrence | Frankfurter (in judgment), joined by Jackson, Burton |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amends. I, XIV | |
This case overturned a previous ruling or rulings | |
| Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio (1915) | |
Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, 343 U.S. 495 (1952), also referred to as the Miracle Decision, was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court that largely marked the decline of motion picture censorship in the United States.[1] It determined that provisions of the New York Education Law that had allowed a censor to forbid the commercial showing of a motion picture film that the censor deemed "sacrilegious" were a "restraint on freedom of speech" and thereby a violation of the First Amendment.[2]
In recognizing that film was an artistic medium entitled to protection under the First Amendment, the Court overturned its previous decision in Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio, which found that movies were not a form of speech worthy of First Amendment protection, but merely a business.[3]
- ^ Jowett, G. (1996). "A significant medium for the communication of ideas": The Miracle decision and the decline of motion picture censorship, 1952–1968. Movie censorship and American culture, 258–276. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.
- ^ Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, 343 U.S. 495 (1952).
- ^ Mutual Film Corp. v. Industrial Commission of Ohio, 236 U.S. 230 (1915).
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