Court Opinion

ID: 9565018
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:13:12.679646+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:19.428593
License: Public Domain

Candler, Justice,
dissenting. Freedom of speech is not an absolute right under the Constitution of this State or under the Constitution of the United States. Atlanta Newspapers, Inc. v. Grimes, 216 Ga. 74 (114 SE2d 421); Times Film Corporation v. City of Chicago, 365 U.S. 43 (81 SC 391, 5 LE2d 403). Freedom of speech as guaranteed both by the Constitution of this State and of the United States does not preclude a municipality from protecting its people against the dangers resulting from the public display of obscene or licentious pictures or other pictures which may adversely affect the peace, health, morals, and good order of such municipality; and to prevent the evil resulting therefrom prior restraint is permissible. Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697, 715 (51 SC 625, 75 LE 1357); Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568, 571, 572 (62 SC 766, 86 LE 1031, 1035); Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476 (77 SC 1304, 1 LE2d 1498). By the 1915 censorship act the legislature conferred police power on the City of Atlanta to regulate by ordinance the places where moving pictures are shown and the right to prohibit the display of obscene or licentious pictures or other pictures which might adversely affect the peace, health, morals, and good order of the city, and it is universally conceded that police power includes everything essential to public safety, health, and morals. As authority for this statement, see Lawton v. Steele, 152 U.S. 133 (14 SC 499, 38 LE 385); Morris v. City of Columbus, 102 Ga. 792 (30 SE 850, 42 LRA 175, 66 ASR 243). I do not consider any other attack which the petitioner makes on the 1915 amendment to the city’s charter or the ordinance adopted pursuant thereto as being meritorious. I would affirm the judgment sustaining a general demurrer to the petition.