Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson
| Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson | |
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| Argued April 24, 1952 Decided May 26, 1952 |
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| 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
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| Prior history | Appeal from the Court of Appeals of New York |
| Holding | |
| The Court 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 1st Amendment. | |
| Court membership | |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Clark, joined by Vinson, Black, Douglas, Burton, Minton |
| Concurrence | Reed |
| Concurrence | Frankfurter, joined by Jackson, Burton |
| Laws applied | |
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U.S. Const. amend. I U.S. Const. amend. XIV |
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This case overturned a previous ruling or rulings
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| 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 which largely marked the decline of motion picture censorship in the United States. It determined that provisions of the New York Education Law which allowed a censor to forbid the commercial showing of a motion picture film it deemed to be "sacrilegious" was a "restraint on freedom of speech" and thereby a violation of the First Amendment.
In recognizing that a 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 (1915), which found that movies were not a form of speech worthy of First Amendment protection, but merely a business.
The case was an appeal to the Supreme Court by film distributor Joseph Burstyn against the rescinding of a license to exhibit the short film "The Miracle", originally made as a segment of the Italian film L'Amore. Burstyn was the distributor of the subtitled English versions of the movie in the U.S.
The film was directed by Italian neorealist Roberto Rossellini. Its 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".
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