Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 620

524US2

Unit: $U95

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Cite as: 524 U. S. 569 (1998)

575

Opinion of the Court

Mapplethorpe and Serrano photographs by eliminating
$45,000 from the agency’s budget, the precise amount con-
tributed to the two exhibits by NEA grant recipients. Con-
gress also enacted an amendment providing that no NEA
funds “may be used to promote, disseminate, or produce
materials which in the judgment of [the NEA] may be
considered obscene, including but not limited to, depictions
of sadomasochism, homoeroticism, the sexual exploitation of
children, or individuals engaged in sex acts and which, when
taken as a whole, do not have serious literary, artistic, politi-
cal, or scientiﬁc value.” Department of the Interior and Re-
lated Agencies Appropriations Act, 1990, 103 Stat. 738–742.
The NEA implemented Congress’ mandate by instituting a
requirement that all grantees certify in writing that they
would not utilize federal funding to engage in projects incon-
sistent with the criteria in the 1990 appropriations bill.
That certiﬁcation requirement was subsequently invalidated
as unconstitutionally vague by a Federal District Court,
see Bella Lewitzky Dance Foundation v. Frohnmayer, 754
F. Supp. 774 (CD Cal. 1991), and the NEA did not appeal
the decision.

In the 1990 appropriations bill, Congress also agreed to
create an Independent Commission of constitutional
law
scholars to review the NEA’s grant-making procedures and
assess the possibility of more focused standards for public
arts funding. The Commission’s report, issued in Septem-
ber 1990, concluded that there is no constitutional obligation
to provide arts funding, but also recommended that the NEA
rescind the certiﬁcation requirement and cautioned against
legislation setting forth any content restrictions.
Instead,
the Commission suggested procedural changes to enhance
the role of advisory panels and a statutory reafﬁrmation of
“the high place the nation accords to the fostering of mutual
respect for the disparate beliefs and values among us.” See
Independent Commission, Report to Congress on the Na-