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''Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson'', 343 U.S. 495 (1952) (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.〔Jowett, G. (1996). "A significant medium for the communication of ideas": The Miracle decision and the decline of motion picture censorship, 1952–1968. ''Movie censorship and American culture'', 258–276. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.〕 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 recognizing 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 a form of speech worthy of First Amendment protection, but merely a business. ==Background== The case was an appeal to the Supreme Court by film distributor Joseph Burstyn against the rescinding of a license to exhibit the short film "The Miracle", originally made as a segment of the Italian film ''L'Amore''. Burstyn was the distributor of the subtitled English versions of the movie in the U.S. The film was directed by Italian neorealist Roberto Rossellini. Its plot centered around a man, "Saint Joseph" (played by director Federico Fellini), who villainously impregnates "Nanni" (Anna Magnani), a disturbed peasant who believes herself to be the Virgin Mary. Fellini and Rossellini also co-wrote the script for "The Miracle". "The Miracle" originally premiered in Europe in 1948 as the anthology film ''L'Amore'' with two segments, "Il Miracolo" and "La voce umana", the latter based on Jean Cocteau's play ''The Human Voice'' and also starring Magnani. The film was first shown in New York in November 1950, presented under the title ''Ways of Love'', with English subtitles. In December, ''Ways of Love'' was voted the best foreign language film of 1950 by the New York Film Critics Circle. "The Miracle" in particular sparked widespread moral outrage, and was criticized as "vile, harmful and blasphemous."〔Kozlovic, Anton Karl (2003). ''(Religious Film Fears 1: Satanic Infusion, Graven Images and Iconographic Perversion )'', 5 (2-3).〕 Protesters in Paris picketed the film with vitriolic signs carrying messages like "This Picture Is an Insult to Every Decent Woman and Her Mother," "Don't Be a Communist," and "Don't Enter the Cesspool." 〔Black, G. D. (1998). ''The Catholic crusade against the movies, 1940-1975.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.〕 After its American release, the New York State Board of Regents reportedly received "hundreds of letters, telegrams, postcards, affidavits and other communications" contrastingly protesting and defending the exhibition of the film. Three members of the Board were subsequently ordered to examine it; they concluded that ''The Miracle'' was "sacrilegious" and directed the appellants to show otherwise at a hearing. The hearing determined that the film indeed constituted religious bigotry and on February 16, 1951, the Commissioner of Education was ordered to rescind the picture's license.〔() "Rossellini's Religious Films"〕 The appellant brought this decision of the Board to rescind the license to the New York courts for review, on the grounds that the statute "violates the First Amendment as a prior restraint upon freedom of speech and of the press," "that it is invalid under the same Amendment as a violation of the guaranty of separate church and state and as a prohibition of the free exercise of religion," and "that the term 'sacrilegious' is so vague and indefinite as to offend due process." The Board's decision was upheld by the New York state courts, including the New York Court of Appeals. The decision was appealed to the Supreme Court. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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