Censorship disputes that center on violence are usually based on the notion that violent content in popular entertainment - from books to movies to video games trivialize violence or desensitize viewers to its effects. Unlike obscenity however, the U.S. Supreme Court has never treated violent content as an exception to First Amendment protection, even though the opportunity has presented itself several times to the Court.

The Court considered violence in popular entertainment in 1948 in Winters v. New York, and provided that such material is fully protected by the First Amendment regardless of its social worth. The Court rejected the idea that First Amendment protections only apply to “worthy” material or to “the exposition of ideas,” and stated instead that the “line between the informing and the entertaining is too elusive for the protection of that basic right.”

Even in the more extreme case involving speech that advocates violence, the Court has refused to administer penalties unless the speech in question constitutes actual incitement to lawless action where the threat to public safety is imminent.

» June 30, 2007- Challenged books to stay in Fargo schools A Fargo School District committee has reviewed two books a parent wanted pulled from the curriculum and determined that both will remain options for teachers to use. The books "Until They Bring the Streetcars Back" and "Finding Laura Buggs" are both written by Stanley Gordon West. In early April, Fargo parent Pamela Sund Herschlip submitted a request for the books to be pulled, stating that she feels the author's approach to writing about such issues as incest, sexual slavery, murder and infanticide are inappropriate. The committee made up of parents, teachers and administrators decided the books were acceptable for teachers to use.
Related: See NCAC and ABFFE's April 30 » Joint letter to Fargo Superintendent About Removal of two Novels.

» April 18 , 2007 - ‘Chocolate War’ to be cut from Harford schools’ curriculum Superintendent Jacqueline Haas will go before the Harford County Board of Education on Tuesday to announce that Robert Cormier’s “The Chocolate War” will be pulled from the mandatory ninth-grade “living in a contemporary world” class, despite a review committee’s unanimous ruling that it should be kept.

Parents came to Board of Education meetings throughout the summer to protest the book’s language, depictions of violence and references to sex. Several letters of concern were copied directly from the Web site of the advocacy group “Parents Against Bad Books in Schools.” See NCAC's Joint letter to Harford County Superintendent About Removal of The Chocolate War from Ninth Grade Curriculum

TV Violence and the FCC: A First Amendment Center Symposium In the wake of a new FCC report on violence in the media, the First Amendment Center has compiled an extensive collection of analysis and commentary on the issue.

"The Great Divide," Censorship and Violent Video Games An article by an international law firm sheds some light on the vast differences between the way the U.K. and the U.S. respond to violence in video games — and sets off a lively discussion between gamers on the rating system, self-censorship, and the dubious correlation between "antisocial behavior" and exposure to violence.

» July 22, 2004 - California Court Upholds Student Poet's First Amendment Rights The California Supreme Court unanimously overturned the conviction of a 15-year old Santa Clara County student who was imprisoned for writing a poem with violent themes.
Related: » Cases of Students Expelled and Suspended for Creating Violent Fiction

Summer 2003 - Court Strikes Down St. Louis Law Banning Sales of Violent Video Games
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unconstitutional a St. Louis ordinance prohibiting sales of video games with graphically violent content to minors without parental consent. In enjoining enforcement of the ordinance, the court said that the First Amendment protects entertainment as well as political or ideological speech. The case is Interactive Digital Software Association v. St. Louis County.

» March 2001 - American Amusement Machine Ass'n v. Teri Kendrick The 7th Circuit held that the First Amendment forbids government from preventing juveniles from being exposed to depictions of violence in video games.
Related: » NCAC Amici Curiae Brief in Support of Plaintiffs-Appellants

Spring 2001 - Video Store in Utah Sanitizes Films In Utah, video store owner Ray Lines rents videos stripped of violence, sex, sin, swearwords, and nudity. Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, and Titanic are among the films edited to be Mormon-friendly.

Winter 2000 - Novel Removed From Long Island H.S. For Its Illustration of Hand-made Bomb
In Long Island, New York, the Port Washington schools dropped Julia Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies for its crude drawing of a hand-made bomb. The highly-acclaimed novel about three sisters active in the resistance movement against the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo was taught in the 10th grade until a school board member questioned whether the illustration could "trigger violence." Students Charlotte McCorkel and Myung-Hee Vahulas got it right when they wrote to their local newspaper: "...If the controversial portion of this book or any other book is discussed in context, then we as students are most capable of putting it in perspective."

» January 2000 - School Board in Littleton, Colorado Retains Native Son
A challenge to Native Son on the high school reading list was originally filed in 1999 because of the novel's violence, sexual scenes and racial language. (insert anchor: Littleton / Native Son)

Winter 1997 - Levittown, New York Superintendent Approves One Fat Summer for Classroom Use
One Fat Summer by Robert Lypsyte was restored in the Levittown, New York public schools. The book was removed as required reading after a complaint about violence and vulgarity, but the suprerintendent has informed faculty that "the book has not been removed for content and, indeed, may well be appropriate for use in other courses such as English literature, ethics, psychology, health, or in a lower level developmental reading class." He also assured teachers that they are free to choose books that meet developmental guidelines.

Summer 1996 - Florida School Officials Retain Poetry Book Challenged for "Inciting Violence"
When a parent demanded that Poetry in Black America be removed from school libraries in Okaloosa County, Fla. for "inciting violence," the Florida Coalition Against Censorship arranged for challenged poet Nikki Giovanni to speak with school officials. The board retained the book.

» Testimony of NCAC Executive Director Before Task Force on Youth Violence and the Entertainment Industry Joan E. Bertin, Executive Director of the NCAC, delivered this testimony before the Task Force on Youth Violence and the Entertainment Industry on October 6, 1999.
Related: » Summary of Joan E. Bertin's Testimony

» Joint Letter to American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Regarding its Misstatements About Media Violence The NCAC, among other organizations, respond to the AAP's misstatements on the correlation of viewing media violence and violent behavior.
Related: » Joint Press Release Regarding AAP's Misstatements About Media Violence

» NCAC Statement on Media Marketing Accountability Act The NCAC expresses its views on the Media Marketing Accountability Act, which aims to respond to concerns about violent or sexual content in entertainment by threatening entertainment companies whose programs and products are considered "inappropriate" for youth.

» Violent Imagery and the First Amendment Although some people draw a distinction between "gratuitous" violence and violence which is used to convey a message, the First Amendment does not make such a distinction.

» Political Candidates Seek to Broaden Their Appeal, Picking Fantasy Violence as Their Target Vice-President Gore, Senator Joseph Lieberman, and Lynne Cheney, blamed Hollywood, popular music and video-games for corrupting youth, at hearings on a Federal Trade Commission report chaired by Senator John McCain.

» Violent Video Game Players Mysteriously Avoid Killing Selves, Others Maybe the next time a social scientist or politician is interested in making pronouncements about the effects of violent video games, they should actually check out the players.