Kingsley International Pictures Corp. v. Regents of the University

Background\n\nA film distributor submitted Lady Chatterley’s Lover to New York’s Motion Picture Division for a license. The Division refused to license three scenes; the Regents then denied a license for the whole film, saying its theme presented adultery as desirable. The Appellate Division ordered a license, but the New York Court of Appeals reversed and upheld the Regents’ denial under a 1954 law defining “immoral” films.\n\nReasoning\n\nThe Court asked whether a State may deny a film license simply because the movie portrays adultery as acceptable. The majority held that motion pictures are protected by the First Amendment as applied to the States and that the New York rule, as applied, punished advocacy of an idea rather than obscene or inciting content. The Court reversed the denial because forbidding a film for advocating the idea that adultery can be proper strikes at free expression.\n\nReal world impact\n\nThe ruling prevents state film boards from using licensing to suppress movies solely for expressing controversial ideas about private conduct. Distributors and exhibitors gain protection from prior censorship when a film’s theme or advocacy, without obscenity or incitement, is the basis for denial. The decision leaves open other limits (for example, obscenity or direct incitement) and does not resolve every possible regulation of movies.\n\nDissents or concurrances\n\nSeveral Justices agreed only in the result and warned that the statute might be valid if read to target obscenity or incitement. Some urged narrower rulings and emphasized difficulties of case-by-case judgments about films.\n\n