United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Teitel Film Corp. v. Cusack, 390 U.S. 139 (1968)

Teitel Film Corp. v. Cusack

No. 787

Decided January 29, 1968

390 U.S. 139

Syllabus

Appellants, who were permanently enjoined by the Illinois courts from showing certain motion pictures, challenged the Chicago Motion Picture Censorship Ordinance as unconstitutional on its face and as applied. The ordinance allows 50 to 57 days to complete the administrative process, and there is no provision for a prompt judicial decision by the trial court of the alleged obscenity of the film.

Held: Appellants' constitutional rights were violated, since the requirements of Freedman v. Maryland, 380 U. S. 51, that the censor, within a "specified brief period," either issue a license or go to court to restrain showing the film, and that there be "prompt final judicial decision," were not met.

38 Ill.2d 53, 230 N.E.2d 241, judgments reversed and remanded.