The Unsubmitted Film

A state law made it a crime to exhibit any motion picture unless it had first been submitted to, and approved and licensed by, a state board of censors. The operator of a theatre deliberately showed a feature film without submitting it, in order to challenge the law. The state conceded that the film broke none of the censorship standards and would have been licensed if it had been submitted. Prosecutors said that did not matter: the offence was showing a film without a licence. The operator argued that forcing every film through a censor in advance, with the burden on the exhibitor and no assurance of prompt court review, was an unconstitutional restraint on free expression.