Father Morton A. Hill, S.J. (1917-1985) was a leader of the

campaign against pornography Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme *Bl ...

in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He was one of the founders of

Morality in Media The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), formerly known as Morality in Media, is an American conservative non-profit known for its anti-pornography advocacy. The group has also campaigned against sex trafficking, same-sex marriage, sex ...

, which was created in 1962 to fight pornography. President

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

appointed him to the

President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography In 1969, the United States Supreme Court ruled in '' Stanley v. Georgia'' that people could view whatever they wished in the privacy of their own homes. In response, the United States Congress funded the President's Commission on Obscenity and Porn ...

. Believing that the Commission was stacked with supporters of loosening laws on pornography, Hill and another clergyman on the Commission, Dr. Winfrey C. Link, issued the Hill-Link Minority Report rebutting the conclusions of the majority report, which held that pornography should be decriminalized as there were no links between it and criminal behavior. Issued in 1970, the majority report was rejected by both President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

and the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

. The Hill-Link Report, which recommended maintaining anti-obscenity statutes, was read into the record of both the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

and the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

. It was cited by the

Burger Court The Burger Court was the period in the history of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1969 to 1986, when Warren Burger served as Chief Justice of the United States. Burger succeeded Earl Warren as Chief Justice after the latter's retir ...

in its 1973 obscenity decisions, including

Miller v. California ''Miller v. California'', 413 U.S. 15 (1973), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court modifying its definition of obscenity from that of "utterly without socially redeeming value" to that which lacks "serious literary, artistic, politi ...

. According to the Morality in Media site, Hill was influential in the

Reagan Administration Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following a landslide victory over D ...

's efforts against pornography. In March 1983, he headed a coalition of groups spearheading the

anti-pornography movement Reasons for opposition to pornography include religious objections and feminist concerns (for specific sectors of feminism), as well as alleged harmful effects, such as pornography addiction. Pornography addiction is not a condition recognized ...

that met with President Reagan at the White House. Hill and his allies recommended that the President appoint an anti-pornography czar to coordinate the federal government's efforts to crack down on porn. The Morality in Media site states, "As a result of this meeting, a White House Working Group on Pornography was formed in June of 1983, and in December, President Reagan addressed the nation's U.S. Attorneys and called for tighter enforcement of the laws

References in popular culture

Father Hill debated novelist

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and ...

on the ''

David Susskind Show ''The David Susskind Show'' is an American television talk show hosted by David Susskind which was broadcast from 1958 to 1986. The program began locally in New York City in 1958 as ''Open End,'' which referred to the fact that the program was open ...

'' on March 17, 1968, in a program called "Read Any Dirty Books Lately?" The previous year, Vidal had published a #1 best-selling novel, '' Myra Breckenridge'', which many considered pornographic. In the sequel to the book, ''

Myron Myron of Eleutherae ( grc, Μύρων, ''Myrōn'' ), working c. 480–440 BC, was an Athenian sculptor from the mid-5th century BC. He was born in Eleutherae on the borders of Boeotia and Attica. According to Pliny's '' Natural History'', Agelad ...

'', Vidal used Father Hill's name as a euphemism for a "dirty word" in order to conform to the U.S. Supreme Court's

decision that enshrined "community standards" as the legal test for pornography.

Sources

*Obscenity.crimes.org
"FR. MORTON A. HILL, S.J.: Defender of the Public Decencies"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Morton A 1917 births 1985 deaths 20th-century American Jesuits Anti-pornography activists