Burstyn v. Wilson

The majority opinion in Burstyn v. Wilson asserted that movies were a significant medium for communicating ideas and therefore could not face censorship from the government. Since the threat of government censorship had played a major role in studios’ willingness to abide by the strictures of the Hays Code,…

…by another Supreme Court case, Burstyn v. Wilson (1952), which affirmed that movies enjoy First Amendment protections. Over the 1950s and ’60s artistically ambitious filmmakers pushed for and won fights with the Code’s censors to include language and themes that spoke to contemporary audiences living through the sexual revolution, the…