L’amore

(1948)

Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson

The issue here is the constitutionality, under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, of a New York statute which permits the banning of motion picture films on the ground that they are “sacrilegious.”

The New York State Board of Regents, which by statute is made the head of the education department, received hundreds of letters, telegrams, post cards, affidavits and other communications both protesting against and defending the public exhibition of the film. After viewing the film, this committee reported to the Board that in its opinion there was basis for the claim that the picture was “sacrilegious.”

Judgment: This case went to the Supreme Court, which ruled: We hold only that under the First and Fourteenth Amendments a state may not ban a film on the basis of a censor’s conclusion that it is “sacrilegious.”