INTERSTATE
CIRCUIT v.
DALLAS, 390
U.S. 676 (1968)
INTERSTATE
CIRCUIT, INC. v.
CITY OF DALLAS.
APPEAL
FROM THE COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS OF TEXAS, FIFTH SUPREME JUDICIAL
DISTRICT.
No.
56.
Argued
January 15-16, 1968.
Decided
April 22, 1968.
[fn*]
Together with
No. 64, United
Artists Corp.
v. City
of Dallas.
on appeal
from the same court.
Appellee,
the City of Dallas, enacted an ordinance establishing
a
Motion Picture Classification Board to classify
films as suitable
or not suitable for young persons, who are defined
as those under
16 years old. In classifying a picture as "not
suitable for young
persons" the Board must follow standards set
forth in the ordinance
and find that, in its judgment, the film describes
or
portrays (1) brutality, criminal violence, or
depravity in such
a manner as likely to incite young persons to
crime or delinquency
or (2) "sexual promiscuity or extra-marital
or abnormal
sexual relations in such a manner as . . . likely
to incite
or encourage delinquency or sexual promiscuity
on the part of
young persons or to appeal to their prurient
interest." A film
shall be considered likely to produce such results
if in the Board's
judgment "there is a substantial probability
that it will create
the impression on young persons that such conduct
is profitable,
desirable, acceptable, respectable, praiseworthy
or commonly
accepted." If the exhibitor does not accept
the Board's "not
suitable" classification, the Board must file
suit to enjoin the
showing of the picture and the Board's determination
is subject
to de
novo
review. The ordinance is enforceable by a misdemeanor
penalty,
injunction, and license revocation. Acting pursuant
to the ordinance
the Board, without giving reasons for its
determination,
classified as "not suitable for young persons"
the
film "Viva Maria," for which appellants are
respectively the
exhibitor and distributor. Following the exhibitor's
notice of
nonacceptance of the Board's classification,
appellee petitioned for
an injunction alleging in terms of the ordinance
that the classification
was warranted because of the film's portrayal
of sexual
promiscuity. Two Board members testified at
the hearing that
several scenes portraying male-female relationships
contravened
"acceptable and approved behavior." The trial
judge, concluding
that there were "two or three features in the
picture that look
to me would be unsuitable to young people,"
issued an injunction.
The appellate court, without limiting the standards
of the ordinance,
affirmed. Held:
The ordinance is violative of the First
and Fourteenth
Amendments as being unconstitutionally vague
since it
lacks "narrowly drawn, reasonable and definite
standards
for the officials to follow," Niemotko
v. Maryland,
340 U.S. 268,
271 (1951).
Pp. 682-691.
(a) Motion
pictures are protected by the First Amendment
and cannot
be regulated except by precise and definite
standards.
Pp. 682-683.
(b) The vice
of vagueness is particularly pronounced where
expression
is subjected to licensing. P. 683.
(c) Vague
censorship standards are not cured merely by
de
novo
judicial review and unless narrowed by interpretation
only encourage
erratic administration. P. 685.
(d) The term
"sexual promiscuity" is not defined in the ordinance
and was not
interpreted in the state courts. The failure
to
limit that term or related terms used in the
ordinance and the
breadth of the standard "profitable, desirable,
acceptable, respectable,
praiseworthy or commonly accepted" give the
censor a
roving commission. Pp. 687-688.
(e) The evil
of vagueness is not cured because the regulation
of
expression is one of classification rather than
direct suppression
or was adopted for the salutary purpose of protecting
children.
Pp. 688-689.
402 S.W.2d 770,
reversed and remanded.
Grover
Hartt, Jr.,
argued the cause for appellant in No.
56. With him on the briefs was Edwin
Tobolowsky. Louis
Nizer
argued the cause for appellant in No. 64.
With him on
the briefs were Paul
Carrington
and Dan
McElroy.
N.
Alex Bickley
argued the cause for appellee in both
cases. With
him on the briefs was Ted
P. MacMaster.
Briefs of
amici
curiae,
urging reversal in No. 64, were filed
by Irwin
Karp
for the Authors League of America, Inc.,
and by Osmond
K. Fraenkel, Edward J. Ennis, Melvin
L. Wulf
and Alan
H. Levine
for the American Civil
Liberties Union et al.
MR. JUSTICE
MARSHALL delivered the opinion of the Court.
Appellants
are an exhibitor and the distributor of a
motion picture
named "Viva Maria," which, pursuant to
a city ordinance,
the Motion Picture Classification Board
of the appellee
City of Dallas classified as "not suitable
for young
persons." A county court upheld the Board's
determination and enjoined exhibition of the
film without
acceptance by appellants of the requirements
imposed by
the restricted classification. The Texas
Court of Civil Appeals affirmed,
and we noted probable
jurisdiction, 387 U.S. 903, to consider the
First and
Fourteenth Amendment issues raised by appellants
with respect
to appellee's classification ordinance.
That ordinance,
adopted in 1965, may be summarized as
follows.
It establishes a Motion Picture Classification
Board, composed
of nine appointed members, all of whom
serve without pay. The Board classifies films
as "suitable
for young persons" or as "not suitable for young
persons,"
young persons being defined as children who
have not reached
their 16th birthday. An exhibitor must
be specially
licensed to show "not suitable" films.
The ordinance
requires the exhibitor, before any initial
showing of
a film, to file with the Board a proposed
classification
of the film together with a summary of its
plot and similar
information. The proposed classification
is approved
if the Board affirmatively agrees with
it, or takes
no action upon it within five days of its filing.
If a majority
of the Board is dissatisfied with the
proposed classification,
the exhibitor is required to project
the film before
at least five members of the Board at
the earliest
practicable time. At the showing, the exhibitor
may also present
testimony or other support for his proposed
classification. Within two days the Board must
issue its
classification order. Should the exhibitor disagree,
he must file
within two days
a notice of nonacceptance. The
Board is then required to go to court
within three
days to seek a temporary injunction, and a
hearing is
required to be set on that application within
five days
thereafter; if the exhibitor agrees to waive
notice and
requests a hearing on the merits of a permanent
injunction,
the Board is required to waive its application
for a temporary
injunction and join in the exhibitor's
request. If
an injunction does not issue within 10
days of the exhibitor's notice of nonacceptance,
the Board's
classification order is suspended.
The ordinance does
not define the scope of judicial review of the
Board's determination,
but the Court of Civil Appeals held that
de
novo
review in the trial court was required.
If an injunction
issues and the exhibitor seeks appellate review,
or if an injunction
is refused and the Board appeals, the
Board must
waive all statutory notices and times, and
join a request
of the exhibitor, to advance the case on the
appellate
court's docket, i.
e.,
do everything it can to assure
a speedy determination.
The ordinance
is enforced primarily by a misdemeanor
penalty: an
exhibitor is subject to a fine of up to $200
if he exhibits
a film that is classified "not suitable for
young persons"
without advertisements clearly stating
its classification
or without the classification being clearly
posted, exhibits
on the same program a suitable and a
not suitable
film, knowingly admits a youth under age
16 to view
the film without his guardian or spouse accompanying
him,
makes any false or willfully misleading
statement
in submitting a film for classification, or
exhibits a
not suitable film without having a valid license
therefor.
The same
penalty is applicable to a youth who obtains
admission
to a not suitable film by falsely giving his
age as
16 years or over, and to any person who sells
or gives to
a youth under 16 a ticket to a not suitable
film, or makes
any false statements to enable such a youth
to gain
admission.
Other means
of enforcement, as against the exhibitor,
are provided.
Repeated violations of the ordinance, or
persistent
failure "to use reasonable diligence to determine
whether those
seeking admittance to the exhibition
of a film
classified `not suitable for young persons'
are below
the age of sixteen," may be the basis for revocation
of a license
to show not suitable films.
Such a persistent failure,
or exhibition of a not suitable film by an
exhibitor
with three convictions under the ordinance,
inter
alia,
are defined as "public nuisances," which the
Board may
seek to restrain by a suit for injunctive relief.
The substantive
standards governing classification are
as follows:
"`Not suitable
for young persons' means:
"(1) Describing
or portraying brutality, criminal
violence or depravity in such a manner as to
be, in
the judgment of the Board, likely to incite
or encourage
crime or delinquency on the part of young
persons;
or
"(2) Describing
or portraying nudity beyond the
customary limits of candor in the community,
or
sexual promiscuity or extra-marital or abnormal
sexual relations
in such a manner as to be, in the
judgment of the Board, likely to incite or encourage
delinquency
or sexual promiscuity on the part of
young persons
or to appeal to their prurient interest.
"A film shall
be considered `likely to incite or
encourage' crime delinquency or sexual promiscuity
on the part
of young persons, if, in the judgment
of the Board,
there is a substantial probability that
it will create
the impression on young persons that
such conduct
is profitable, desirable, acceptable,
respectable,
praiseworthy or commonly accepted.
A film shall
be considered as appealing to `prurient
interest'
of young persons, if in the judgment of the
Board, its
calculated or dominant effect on young
persons is
substantially to arouse sexual desire. In
determining
whether a film is `not suitable for young
persons,'
the Board shall consider the film as a whole,
rather than
isolated portions, and shall determine
whether its
harmful effects outweigh artistic or
educational
values such film may have for young
persons."
Appellants
attack those standards as unconstitutionally
vague. We
agree. Motion pictures are, of course,
protected
by the First Amendment, Joseph
Burstyn, Inc.
v. Wilson,
343 U.S. 495
(1952), and thus we start with the
premise that "[p]recision of regulation must
be the touchstone,"
NAACP
v. Button,
371 U.S. 415,
438 (1963).
And while it is true that this Court refused
to strike
down, against a broad and generalized attack,
a prior
restraint requirement that motion pictures be
submitted to
censors in advance of exhibition, Times
Film Corp.
v. City
of Chicago,
365 U.S. 43
(1961), there has been
no retreat in this area from rigorous insistence
upon procedural
safeguards and judicial superintendence of the
censor's action.
See Freedman
v. Maryland,
380 U.S. 51 (1965).
In Winters
v. New
York,
333 U.S. 507
(1948), this Court
struck down as vague and indefinite a statutory
standard interpreted
by the state court to be "criminal news
or stories of deeds of bloodshed or lust, so
massed as
to become vehicles for inciting violent and
depraved crimes.
. . ." Id.,
at 518. In Joseph
Burstyn, Inc.
v. Wilson,
supra,
the Court dealt with a film licensing
standard of
"sacrilegious," which was found to have such
an all-inclusive
definition as to result in "substantially
unbridled
censorship." 343 U.S., at 502. Following
Burstyn,
the Court held the following film licensing
standards
to be unconstitutionally vague: "of such character
as to be prejudicial
to the best interests of the people
of said City," Gelling
v. Texas,
343 U.S. 960 (1952);
"moral, educational or amusing and harmless,"
Superior
Films, Inc.
v. Department
of Education, 346 U.S. 587
(1954); "immoral," and "tend to corrupt
morals," Commercial
Pictures Corp.
v. Regents,
346 U.S. 587 (1954);
"approve such films . . . [as] are moral and
proper; .
. . disapprove such as are cruel, obscene, indecent
or immoral,
or such as tend to debase or corrupt
morals," Holmby
Productions, Inc.
v. Vaughn,
350 U.S. 870 (1955).
See also Kingsley
Int'l Pictures Corp.
v. Regents,
360 U.S. 684,
699-702 (Clark, J., concurring in result).
The vice
of vagueness is particularly pronounced where
expression
is sought to be subjected to licensing. It may
be unlikely
that what Dallas does in respect to the licensing
of motion
pictures would have a significant effect
upon film
makers in Hollywood or Europe. But what
Dallas may
constitutionally do, so may other cities and
States. Indeed,
we are told that this ordinance is being
used as a
model for legislation in other localities. Thus,
one who wishes
to convey his ideas through that medium,
which of course
includes one who is interested not so
much in expression
as in making money, must consider whether
what he proposes to film, and how he proposes
to film
it, is within the terms of classification schemes
such as
this. If he is unable to determine what the
ordinance means,
he runs the risk of being foreclosed, in practical
effect, from
a significant portion of the movie-going
public. Rather
than run that risk, he might choose nothing
but the innocuous, perhaps save for the so-called
"adult" picture.
Moreover, a local exhibitor who cannot
afford to
risk losing the youthful audience when a film
may be of
marginal interest to adults — perhaps
a "Viva Maria"
— may contract to show only the totally
inane. The
vast wasteland that some have described in reference
to another
medium might be a verdant paradise in
comparison. The First Amendment interests here
are, therefore,
broader than merely those of the film maker,
distributor,
and exhibitor, and certainly broader than
those of youths
under 16.
Of course,
as the Court said in Joseph
Burstyn, Inc.
v. Wilson,
343 U.S., at 502, "[i]t does not follow that
the Constitution
requires absolute freedom to exhibit every
motion picture
of every kind at all times and all places."
What does
follow at the least, as the cases above illustrate,
is that the
restrictions imposed cannot be so vague
as to set
"the censor . . . adrift upon a boundless sea
. . .," id.,
at 504. In short, as Justice Frankfurter said,
"legislation must
not be so vague, the language so loose, as to
leave to those
who have to apply it too wide a discretion
. . .," Kingsley
Int'l Pictures Corp.
v. Regents,
360 U.S.,
at 694 (concurring in result), one reason being
that "where
licensing is rested, in the first instance,
in an administrative
agency, the available judicial review
is in effect
rendered inoperative [by vagueness]," Joseph
Burstyn,
Inc.
v. Wilson,
supra,
at 532 (concurring opinion). Thus,
to the extent that vague standards do not
sufficiently
guide the censor, the problem is not cured
merely by
affording de
novo
judicial review. Vague standards,
unless narrowed by interpretation, encourage
erratic administration
whether the censor be administrative
or judicial;
"individual impressions become the yardstick
of action,
and result in regulation in accordance with
the beliefs
of the individual censor rather than regulation
by law," Kingsley
Int'l Pictures Corp.
v. Regents,
supra,
at 701 (Clark, J., concurring in result).
The dangers
inherent in vagueness are strikingly illustrated
in these cases.
Five members of the Board viewed "Viva
Maria." Eight members voted to classify it as
"not suitable
for young persons," the ninth member not
voting. The
Board gave no reasons for its determination.
Appellee alleged
in its petition for an injunction that
the classification was warranted because the
film portrayed
"sexual promiscuity in such a manner as
to be in the
judgment of the Board likely to incite or
encourage
delinquency or sexual promiscuity on the part
of young persons
or to appeal to their prurient interests."
Two Board
members, a clergyman and a lawyer, testified
at the hearing.
Each adverted to several scenes in the
film which,
in their opinion, portrayed male-female relationships
in a way contrary
to "acceptable and approved behavior."
Each acknowledged, in reference to scenes
in which clergymen
were involved in violence, most of which
was farcical, that "sacrilege" might have entered
into the Board's
determination. And both conceded that
the asserted
portrayal of "sexual promiscuity" was implicit
rather than
explicit, i.
e.,
that it was a product of inference
by, and imagination of, the viewer.
So far as
"judicial superintendence"
and de
novo review
are concerned, the trial judge, after viewing
the film
and hearing argument, stated merely: "Oh, I
realize you
gentlemen might be right. There are two or three
features in
this picture that look to me would be unsuitable
to young people.
. . . So I enjoin the exhibitor . . .
from exhibiting
it."
Nor did the Court of Civil Appeals provide
much enlightenment or a narrowing definition
of the ordinance.
United Artists argued that the obscenity
standards similar to those set forth in Roth
v. United
States,
354 U.S. 476
(1957), and other decisions of
this Court ought to be controlling.
The majority of the
Court of Civil Appeals held, alternatively,
(1) that such
cases were not applicable because the legislation
involved in
them resulted in suppression of the offending
expression
rather than its classification; (2) that if
obscenity standards
were applicable then "Viva Maria" was
obscene as to adults (a patently untenable conclusion)
and therefore
entitled to no constitutional protection;
and (3) that
if obscenity standards were modified as
to children,
the film was obscene as to them, a conclusion
which was
not in terms given as a narrowing interpretation
of any specific
provision of the ordinance. 402 S.W.2d
770,
775-776. In
regard to the last alternative holding,
we must conclude
that the court in effect ruled that the
"portrayal . . . of sexual promiscuity as acceptable,"
id.,
at 775, is in itself obscene as to children.
The court also
held that the standards of the ordinance were
"sufficiently definite."
Ibid.
Thus, we
are left merely with the film and directed
to the words
of the ordinance. The term "sexual promiscuity"
is not there
defined
and was not interpreted in
the state courts. It could extend, depending
upon one's
moral judgment, from the obvious to any sexual
contacts outside
a marital relationship. The determinative
manner of
the "describing or portraying" of the
subjects covered
by the ordinance (see supra,
at 681), including
"sexual promiscuity," is defined as "such a
manner as
to be, in the judgment of the Board, likely
to incite
or encourage delinquency or sexual promiscuity
on the part
of young persons." A film is so "`likely
to incite
or encourage' crime delinquency or sexual promiscuity
on the part
of young persons, if, in the judgment
of the Board,
there is a substantial probability that it
will create
the impression on young persons that such
conduct is
profitable, desirable, acceptable, respectable,
praiseworthy
or commonly accepted." It might be excessive
literalism
to insist, as do appellants, that because
those last
six adjectives are stated in the disjunctive,
they represent
separate and alternative subtle determinations
the Board
is to make, any of which results in a
not suitable classification. Nonetheless, "[w]hat
may be
to one viewer the glorification of an idea as
being `desirable,
acceptable or proper' may to the notions of
another be
entirely devoid of such a teaching. The only
limits on
the censor's discretion is his understanding
of what
is included within the term `desirable, acceptable
or proper.'
This is nothing less than a roving commission.
. . ." Kingsley
Int'l Pictures Corp.
v. Regents,
360 U.S.,
at 701 (Clark. J., concurring in result).
Vagueness
and the attendant evils we have earlier described,
see supra,
at 683-685, are not rendered less objectionable
because the
regulation of expression is one of classification
rather than direct suppression. Cf. Bantam
Books,
Inc.
v. Sullivan,
372 U.S. 58
(1963).
Nor is it
an answer to an argument that a particular regulation
of expression
is vague to say that it was adopted for the
salutary purpose
of protecting children. The permissible
extent of
vagueness is not directly proportional to, or
a function
of, the extent of the power to regulate or control
expression
with respect to children. As Chief Judge Fuld
has said:
"It is .
. . essential that legislation aimed at
protecting
children from allegedly harmful expression
— no
less than legislation enacted with respect
to adults
— be clearly drawn and that the standards
adopted be
reasonably precise so that those who
are governed
by the law and those that administer
it will understand
its meaning and application." People
v. Kahan,
15 N.Y.2d 311,
313, 206 N.E.2d 333,
335 (1965) (concurring opinion).
The vices
— the lack of guidance to those who seek
to adjust
their conduct and to those who seek to administer
the law, as
well as the possible practical curtailing of
the effectiveness
of judicial review — are the same.
It is not
our province to draft legislation. Suffice it
to say that
we have recognized that some believe "motion
pictures possess
a greater capacity for evil, particularly
among the
youth of a community, than other modes
of expression," Joseph
Burstyn, Inc.
v. Wilson,
supra,
at 502, and we have indicated more generally
that because
of its strong and abiding interest in youth,
a State may
regulate the dissemination to juveniles of,
and their
access to, material objectionable as to them,
but which
a State clearly could not regulate as to adults.
Ginsberg
v. New
York, ante,
p. 629.
Here we conclude only
that "the absence of narrowly drawn, reasonable
and definite
standards for the officials to follow," Niemotko
v. Maryland,
340 U.S. 268,
271 (1951), is fatal.
The judgment
of the Texas Court of Civil Appeals is
reversed and the cases are remanded for further
proceedings not
inconsistent with this opinion.
It
is so ordered.
APPENDIX
TO OPINION OF THE COURT.
Chapter 46A
of the 1960 Revised Code of Civil and
Criminal Ordinances
of the City of Dallas, as amended, provides:
Section 46A-1.
Definition
of Terms:
(a) "Film"
means any motion picture film or series of
films, whether
full length or short subject, but does not
include newsreels
portraying actual current events or pictorial
news of the
day.
(b) "Exhibit"
means to project a film at any motion
picture theatre
or other public place within the City of
Dallas to
which tickets are sold for admission.
(c) "Exhibitor"
means any person, firm or corporation
which exhibits
a film.
(d) "Young
person" means any person who has not
attained his
sixteenth birthday.
(e) "Board"
means the Dallas Motion Picture Classification
Board established
by Section 46A-2 of this ordinance.
(f) "Not
suitable for young persons" means:
(1) Describing
or portraying brutality, criminal violence
or depravity
in such a manner as to be, in the judgment
of the Board,
likely to incite or encourage crime or
delinquency
on the part of young persons; or
(2) Describing
or portraying nudity beyond the customary
limits of candor in the community, or sexual
promiscuity
or extra-marital or abnormal sexual relations
in such a
manner as to be, in the judgment of the Board,
likely to
incite or encourage delinquency or sexual promiscuity
on the part
of young persons or to appeal to their
prurient interest.
A film shall
be considered "likely to incite or encourage"
crime delinquency
or sexual promiscuity on the part of
young persons,
if, in the judgment of the Board, there
is a substantial
probability that it will create the impression
on young persons
that such conduct is profitable, desirable,
acceptable, respectable, praiseworthy or commonly
accepted.
A film shall be considered as appealing
to "prurient
interest" of young persons, if in the judgment
of the Board,
its calculated or dominant effect on
young persons
is substantially to arouse sexual desire.
In determining
whether a film is "not suitable for young
persons,"
the Board shall consider the films as a whole,
rather than
isolated portions, and shall determine whether
its harmful
effects outweigh artistic or educational values
such film
may have for young persons.
(g) "Classify"
means to determine whether a film is:
(1) Suitable
for young persons, or;
(2) Not suitable
for young persons.
(h) "Advertisement"
means any commercial promotional material
initiated by an exhibitor designed to bring
a film to
public attention or to increase the sale of
tickets to
exhibitions of same, whether by newspaper, billboard,
motion picture,
television, radio, or other media within
or originating
within the City of Dallas.
(i) "Initial
exhibition" means the first exhibition of
any film within
the City of Dallas.
(j) "Subsequent
exhibition" means any exhibition subsequent
to the initial exhibition, whether by the same
or a different
exhibitor.
(k) "File"
means to deliver to the City Secretary for
safekeeping
as a public record of the City of Dallas.
(l) "Classification
order" means any written determination
by a majority
of the Board classifying a film, or
granting or refusing an application for change
of classification.
(m) The term
"Board" as used and applied in subsection
(a) of Section
46A-7 shall include the City of Dallas
when attempting to enforce this ordinance and
the City Attorney
of the City of Dallas when representing
the Board
or the City of Dallas.
Section 46A-2.
Establishment
of Board:
There is
hereby created a Board to be known as the
Dallas Motion
Picture Classification Board which shall
be composed
of a Chairman and Eight Members to be
appointed
by the Mayor and City Council of the City of
Dallas, whose
terms shall be the same as members of the
City Council.
Such members shall serve without pay
and shall
adopt such rules and regulations as they deem
best governing
their action, proceeding and deliberations
and time and
place of meeting. These rules and regulations
shall be subject
to approval of the City Council. If
a vacancy occurs upon the Board by death, resignation
or otherwise,
the governing body of the City of Dallas
shall appoint a member to fill such vacancy
for the
unexpired term.
The Chairman
and all Members of the Board shall be
good, moral,
law-abiding citizens of the City of Dallas,
and shall
be chosen so far as reasonably practicable in
such a manner
that they will represent a cross section of
the community.
Insofar as practicable, the members appointed
to the Board
shall be persons educated and experienced
in one or
more of the following fields: art, drama,
literature, philosophy, sociology, psychology,
history, education,
music, science or other related fields.
The City Secretary
shall act as Secretary of the Board.
Section 46A-3.
Classification
Procedure:
(a) Before
any initial exhibition, the exhibitor shall
file a proposed
classification of the film to be exhibited,
stating the
title of the film and the name of the producer,
and giving
a summary of the plot and such other information
as the Board
may by rule require, together with the
classification proposed by the exhibitor. The
Board shall
examine such proposed classification, and if
it approves same,
shall mark it "approved" and file it as its
own classification
order. If the Board fails to act, that
is, either
file a classification order or hold a hearing
within five
(5) days after such proposed classification
is filed,
the proposed classification shall be considered
approved.
(b) If upon
examination of the proposed classification
a majority
of the Board is not satisfied that it is proper,
the Chairman
shall direct the exhibitor to project the
film before
any five (5) or more members of the Board,
at a suitably
equipped place and at a specified time,
which shall
be the earliest time practicable with due
regard to
the availability of the film. The exhibitor,
or his designated
representative, may at such time make
such statement
to the Board in support of his proposed
classification
and present such testimony as he may
desire. Within
two (2) days, the Board shall make and
file its classification of the film in question.
(c) Any initial
or subsequent exhibitor may file an application
for a change in the classification of any film
previously
classified. No exhibitor shall be allowed to
file more
than one (1) application for change of classification
of the same
film. Such application shall contain
a sworn statement
of the grounds upon which the application
is based.
Upon filing of such application, the
City Secretary
shall bring it immediately to the attention
of the Chairman
of the Board, who upon application by
the exhibitor shall set a time and place for
a hearing and
shall notify the applicants and all interested
parties, including
all exhibitors who may be exhibiting or preparing
to exhibit
the film. The Board shall view the film
and at such hearing, hear the statements of
all interested
parties, and any proper testimony that may
be offered,
and shall within two (2) days thereafter make
and file its
order approving or changing such classification.
If the classification
of a film is changed as a result
of such hearing to the classification "not suitable
for young
persons," the exhibitors showing the film
shall have
seven (7) days in which to alter their
advertising
and audience policy to comply with such
classification.
(d) Upon
filing by the Board of any classification
order, the
City Secretary shall immediately issue and
mail a notice
of classification to the exhibitor involved
and to any
other exhibitor who shall request such notice.
(e) A classification
shall be binding on any subsequent exhibitor
unless and until he obtains a change of classification
in the manner
above provided.
Section 46A-4.
Offenses:
(a) It shall
be unlawful for any exhibitor or his
employee:
(1) To exhibit
any film which has not been classified
as provided
in this ordinance.
(2) To exhibit
any film classified "not suitable for
young persons"
if any current advertisement of such film
by such exhibitor
fails to state clearly the classification
of such film.
(3) To exhibit
any film classified "not suitable for
young persons"
without keeping such classification posted
prominently
in front of the theatre in which such film
is being exhibited.
(4) Knowingly
to sell or give to any young person a
ticket to any film classified "not suitable
for young persons."
(5) Knowingly
to permit any young person to view the
exhibition of any film classified "not suitable
for young
persons."
(6) To exhibit
any film classified "not suitable for
young persons"
or any scene or scenes from such a film,
or from an
unclassified film, whether moving or still,
in the
same theatre and on the same program with a
film classified
"suitable for young persons"; provided that
any advertising
preview or trailer containing a scene or
scenes from
an unclassified film or a film classified "not
suitable for
young persons" may be shown at any time
if same has
been separately classified as "suitable for
young persons"
under the provisions of Section 46A-3 of
this ordinance.
(7) To make
any false or willfully misleading statement
in any proposed
classification, application for change
of classification, or any other proceeding before
the Board.
(8) To exhibit
any film classified "not suitable for
young persons"
without having in force the license hereinafter
provided.
(b) It shall
be unlawful for any young person:
(1) To give
his age falsely as sixteen (16) years of
age or over,
for the purpose of gaining admittance to an
exhibition
of a film classified "not suitable for young
persons."
(2) To enter
or remain in the viewing room of any
theatre where
a film classified "not suitable for young
persons" is
being exhibited.
(3) To state
falsely that he or she is married for
the purpose
of gaining admittance to an exhibition of a
film classified
as "not suitable for young persons."
(c) It shall
be unlawful for any person:
(1) To sell
or give any young person a ticket to
an exhibition
of a film classified "not suitable for young
persons."
(2) To make
any false or willfully misleading statement
in an application
for change of classification or in any
proceeding before the Board.
(3) To make
any false statements for the purpose
of enabling
any young person to gain admittance to
the exhibition
of a film classified as "not suitable for
young persons."
(d) To the
extent that any prosecution or other proceeding
under this
ordinance, involves the entering, purchasing
of a ticket,
or viewing by a young person of a film
classified "not suitable for young persons,"
it shall be
a valid defense that such young person was accompanied
by his parent
or legally appointed guardian,
husband or
wife, throughout the viewing of such film.
Section 46A-5.
License:
Every exhibitor
holding a motion picture theatre or motion
picture show license issued pursuant to Chapter
46 of the
1960 Revised Code of Civil and Criminal
Ordinances
of the City of Dallas shall be entitled to
issuance of
a license by the City Secretary to exhibit
films classified
"not suitable for young persons."
Section 46A-6.
Revocation
or suspension of license:
Whenever
the City Attorney or any person acting
under his
direction, or any ten (10) citizens of the City
of Dallas,
shall file a sworn complaint with the City
Secretary
stating that any exhibitor has repeatedly violated
the provisions
of this ordinance, or that any exhibitor
has persistently failed to use reasonable diligence
to determine
whether those seeking admittance to
the exhibition of a film classified "not suitable
for young
persons" are below the age of sixteen (16),
the City
Secretary shall immediately bring such complaint
to the attention
of the City Council who shall set a time
and place
for hearing such compl |