Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson
Case Date: 07/22/2024
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Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, 343 U.S. 495 (1952)[2], (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.[1] 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 recognising 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 an art form worthy of First Amendment protection, but merely a business.
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