American Decades

Supreme Court decision

By: Thomas Campbell Clark

Date: May 26, 1952

Source: Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, 343 U.S. 495 (1952). Available online at FindLaw for Legal Professionals. http://caselaw.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=... (accessed February 9, 2003).

About the Author: Thomas Campbell Clark (1899–1977) was born in Dallas, Texas. In 1922, he received a law degree from the University of Texas. He was appointed a special assistant to the U.S. attorney general in 1937 and rose to U.S. attorney general in 1945. In 1949, Clark was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he served until he retired in 1967.

Introduction

In the 1950s, New York State had a law mandating that films had to be licensed by the state to be publicly shown. The...