Freedman v. Maryland, , is a United States Supreme Court case that ended government-operated rating boards with a decision that a rating board could only approve a film and had no power to ban

Ban (law)

A ban is, generally, any decree that prohibits something.Bans are formed for the prohibition of activities within a certain political territory. Some see this as a negative act and others see it as maintaining the "status quo"...

 a film. The ruling also concluded that a rating board must either approve a film within a reasonable time, or go to court to stop a film from being shown in theatres. Other court cases determined that television stations are federally licensed, so local rating boards have no jurisdiction

Jurisdiction

Jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility...

 over films shown on television. When the movie industry set up its own rating system—the Motion Picture Association of America

Motion Picture Association of America

The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. , originally the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America , was founded in 1922 and is designed to advance the business interests of its members...

—most state and local boards ceased operating.

Background

Ronald Freedman challenged the law of Maryland that films must be submitted to the Maryland State Board of Censors

Maryland State Board of Censors

The Maryland State Board of Censors was a three-member state agency created in 1916 required to view all films to be shown in the state, and decide whether or not the films were "moral and proper." Without approval of the agency, a film could not be legally shown in Maryland...

 before being shown in theaters, claiming it unconstitutional; violating freedom of expression granted by the First Amendment

First Amendment to the United States Constitution

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...

.

Opinion of the Court

In a unanimous opinion by Justice Brennan

William J. Brennan, Jr.

William Joseph Brennan, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1956 to 1990...

, the Court held that a rating board could only approve a film and had no power to ban

Ban (law)

A ban is, generally, any decree that prohibits something.Bans are formed for the prohibition of activities within a certain political territory. Some see this as a negative act and others see it as maintaining the "status quo"...

 a film.

See also

• Censorship in the United States
  Censorship in the United States
  In general, censorship in the United States, which involves the suppression of speech or other public communication, raises issues of freedom of speech, which is constitutionally protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution....
  
  
• Production Code
  Production Code
  The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral censorship guidelines that governed the production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Hollywood's chief censor of the...
  
  
• Burstyn v. Wilson