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The Pennsylvania State Board of Censors was an organization under the
Pennsylvania Department of Education The Pennsylvania Department of Education is the executive department of the state charged with publicly funded preschool, K-12 and adult educational budgeting, management and guidelines. As the state education agency, its activities are directed ...
responsible for approving, redacting, or banning
motion pictures A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
that it considered "sacrilegious, obscene, indecent, or immoral" or might pervert
morals Morality () is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper (right) and those that are improper (wrong). Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of cond ...
.


Organization

The board was composed of three members, which were appointed by the
Governor of Pennsylvania A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
. Despite a censorship law passed in 1911, a lack of funding prevented it from beginning its activities until 1914.


Elimination

In 1956, the
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme ...
ruled the act which created and provided for the board was
unconstitutional Constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applicable constitution. When l ...
, with respect to the
Pennsylvania Constitution The Constitution of Pennsylvania is the supreme law within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. All acts of the General Assembly, the governor, and each governmental agency are subordinate to it. Since 1776, Pennsylvania's Constitution has undergone ...
and so revoked the mandate for the board's existence. The
Pennsylvania General Assembly The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The legislature convenes in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. In colonial times (1682–1776), the legislature was known as the Pennsylvania ...
re-enacted the statute in 1959, but it was struck down again in 1961 by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.Laura Wittern-Keller, “All the Power of the Law: Governmental Film Censorship in the United States”, in ''Silencing Cinema: Film Censorship around the World'', eds. Daniel Biltereyst & Roel Vande Winkel (NY: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013).


See also

*
British Board of Film Censors The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of fi ...
*
Film censorship in the United States Film censorship in the United States was a frequent feature of the industry almost from the beginning of the U.S. motion picture industry until the end of strong self-regulation in 1966. Court rulings in the 1950s and 1960s severely constrained g ...
*
Indian Film Censor Board The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is a statutory film-certification body in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India. It is tasked with "regulating the public exhibition of films under the provision ...
*
List of Pennsylvania state agencies State related agencies of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Agencies *Pennsylvania Attorney General *Pennsylvania Auditor General * Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole * Pennsylvania Department of Aging *Pennsylvania Department of Agricult ...
*
Maryland State Board of Censors The Maryland State Board of Censors was a three-member state agency that existed from 1916 to 1981 in the U.S. state of Maryland. No film could be officially released in the state without the approval of the board, which granted licenses to films ...


References


External links


Page on the Department of Education from the State Archives

The Public Domain film which the above image came from
State agencies of Pennsylvania Government of Pennsylvania Film censorship in the United States {{gov-agency-stub