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Constitutional Law Keyed to Choper
Kingsley International Pictures Corp. v. Regents
Citation:
360 U.S. 684 (1959)Facts
Kingsley International Pictures Corporation submitted the film “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” to the Motion Picture Division of the New York Education Department for licensing as required by state law. The Division initially refused to license the film until three scenes deemed “immoral” were deleted. Upon review, the Regents of the University of the State of New York upheld the denial but on broader grounds, stating that “the whole theme of this motion picture is immoral under said law, for that theme is the presentation of adultery as a desirable, acceptable and proper pattern of behavior.” The New York Court of Appeals, in a divided decision, upheld the Regents’ refusal to license the film. Importantly, the Court of Appeals unanimously and explicitly rejected any notion that the film was obscene. Rather, the court found that the film was denied a license solely because it portrayed “acts of sexual immorality…as desirable, acceptable or proper patterns of behavior.” The New York court interpreted the state statute as requiring denial of a license to any film that “approvingly portrays an adulterous relationship, quite without reference to the manner of its portrayal.”
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