Mutual Decision- Bhavna B.

In 1913 Ohio state claimed the National Board of Review as ineffective and decided to have their own censorship board and standards that films must meet to be approved. The catch was, however, that each film corporation must pay a fee to the board in order to get reviewed.          

Mutual Film Corporation sought to go against the state under three terms:

1. This law affected interstate commerce.

2. This law gave power to a group of people that were not elected to make laws and standards about films.

3. This law violated free speech.

After being rejected by the district court, Mutual appealed to the Supreme Court. In a surprising decision, the court rejected the corporation’s claims. The court accepted that films were a form of expressing opinion, but they were pure business rather than press. The court also said that this law did not affect interstate commerce because the censorship was within the state. Lastly, the court ignored Mutual’s claims that delegation boundaries were vague.