The First Amendment: The Censorship Of Film

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The first amendment has been regarded today as the protector of free speech and expression in America, but it wasn’t always like it is today. In the early nineteenth century, the supreme court voiced out their opinions to restrict the newest medium of communication at the time, the motion picture. They stated that, “film was not a form of speech protected by the first amendment” (Hastings Law Quarterly). By limiting expressions shown through the movies, the government was restricting people’s views. In order to find out more about why media was censored in the past we should look first at the history of it, the messages the films were trying to spread and how it applied to the first amendment. This sparked the government to create film boards

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