Court Opinion

ID: 9561978
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:20:03.391324+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:09.325603
License: Public Domain

Duckworth, Chief Justice,
dissenting. In K. Gordon Murray Productions, Inc. v. Floyd, 217 Ga. 784, 787 (2) (125 SE2d 207), this court said: “If the attack upon the portion of the city charter (Ga. L. 1915, p. 480, at pp. 493, 494) which authorizes the city to adopt the censorship ordinance, and upon the ordinance adopted pursuant thereto, which contends that in providing for examination of all motion pictures by the censorship board and forbidding the showing of'any picture without first obtaining a permit from the city, thereby imposing a piior restraint of speech in violation of the First Amendment (Code § 1-801), and the Fourteenth Amendment (Code § 1-815) of the U. S. Constitution and also Code Ann. § 2-115 of the State Constitution (Const. of 1945), . . . the charter provision as well as the ordinance are void, and it was error to dismiss the petition on demurrer.” (Italics mine.) Then at page 793 we held: “It follows that the charter and ordinance provision, requiring inspection of the protected as well as the unprotected pictures, and *720also requiring a permit from the city authorities before any picture can be exhibited in the theatre, violate the State Constitution (Code Ann. § 2-115) and are void.” (Italics mine.) To any reasonable mind this could only mean that charter authorization for an ordinance that imposed a prior restraint on legitimate pictures was unconstitutional and void. The trial court was confronted with a decision of this court, binding upon him, adjudging that the provisions of the charter authorizing such an ordinance were void, and his clear analysis of that opinion shows that he understood it; hence he found before him a charter with such authority completely carved out of it. In this situation, being the learned and experienced lawyer that he is, he ruled —and I maintain correctly so — that there was remaining in the charter when this case was presented nothing, absolutely nothing, to authorize the adoption of this ordinance which unmistakably imposes a prior restraint upon all pictures. Our ruling as quoted above in the K. Gordon Murray Productions case effectually, and as a matter of law, erased from the charter all power to provide a prior restraint by ordinance of non-obscene pictures. The trial judge being experienced in the construction of statutes correctly ruled that the remains of the charter did not authorize this ordinance.
But the majority of this court, obviously unfamiliar with the true meaning of what we ruled in that case, and either unacquainted with or unwilling to observe the universal rule of construction which requires that if a statute is susceptible to two constructions, one of which would render it unconstitutional and the other constitutional, it must be given that construction which would render it constitutional rather than unconstitutional, have seized upon and lifted from its context the verbiage of section 23 of the charter (Ga. L. 1915, p. 480, at page 493), “governing the matter of pictures displayed,” and ignoring the continuation of the same sentence, which is “and to prevent the display of obscene or licentious pictures or other pictures that may affect the peace, health, morals and good order of said city.” Then they assert that the isolated words, the full meaning of which can be known only as they relate to and are qualified by the remainder of the sentence, authorize the adoption of a clearly *721invalid and unconstitutional ordinance which is in the teeth of our decision in the K. Gordon Murray Productions case which plainly ruled that such prior restraint of non-obscene pictures is violative of the Constitution (Code Ann. § 2-115). It is incorrect to say adoption of ordinances “governing the matter of pictures displayed” can be separated from the words that follow, to wit: “to prevent the display of obscene or licentious,” etc., pictures. To govern the display of what pictures? To prevent display of obscene or licentious, etc., pictures. The fact is that the referred-to charter provisions are not susceptible of a construction that they authorize doing anything but preventing obscene or licentious, etc., pictures which under K. Gordon Murray Productions is perfectly constitutional. But in all events they are susceptible to a construction limiting them to such pictures. Then for argument’s sake only, I make the wild assumption that they might be construed to refer to all pictures, and to authorizing the placing by ordinance of a prior restraint on them, which would under the K. Gordon Murray Productions case be unconstitutional. The unchallengeable rule of construction demands that they be given the former construction, thus rendering them constitutional. Smith v. Evans, 125 Ga. 109, 112 (53 SE 589); Fordham v. Sikes, 141 Ga. 469 (81 SE 208); Bennett v. Wheatley, 154 Ga. 591 (115 SE 83); Evans v. Evans, 190 Ga. 364, 369 (9 SE2d 254); DeWitt v. Richmond County, 192 Ga. 770, 773 (16 SE2d 579); Sumter County v. Allen, 193 Ga. 171, 174 (17 SE2d 567); Thomas v. Board of Com’rs of Chattooga County, 196 Ga. 10, 14 (25 SE2d 647); Hill v. Busbia, 217 Ga. 781 (125 SE2d 34).
But the majority, completely ignoring the plain verbiage of the charter as well as the binding rule of construction, have ruled that, despite our former ruling in the K. Gordon Murray Productions case, that portions of the charter authorizing prior restraint violate the Constitution, Code Ann. § 2-115, and are void, the remains of the charter since that decision operated upon it still authorize this ordinance placing a prior restraint upon all pictures good and bad. By that ruling, which is in my opinion palpably erroneous, they compel the futile return of the case for further ruling on the demurrer, knowing that after *722considerable time and expense have been spent, the ordinance will and must ultimately meet the fate it deserves of being declared unconstitutional because it imposes a prior restraint. Such futility is not calculated to increase respect for the courts. I can not conceive of how any true, comprehension of the factual case with which we are presented could possibly reach the conclusion of the majority.
I abhor obscene, licentious pictures as much as anyone. The Constitution does not protect them. This court in K. Gordon Murray Productions, Inc. v. Floyd, 217 Ga. 784, supra, made it plain that they had no protection and could be severely dealt with. But I am unwilling to destroy or even whittle away one iota of the absolute protection of non-obscene, non-licentious pictures and the protected speech and press embraced in the Constitution. It would seem that a mental review of history stretching across the past centuries, marked with the record of martyrs who suffered cruel punishment and death by burning at the stake, as well as the cross upon which Jesus was crucified, because they exercised the inherent right to speak, would convince everyone of the high purpose and great wisdom of the freedom of speech and press solemnly guaranteed by our Constitution. To deny this protection on the flimsy excuse that it is done to get at the abuses which are not protected is no more sensible than it would be to round up our preachers along with a thief and put them all in jail on the pretense that such foolishness was necessary in order to catch the thief whom all good citizens wanted caught.
Although the judgment under review does not, authorize a direct ruling on the constitutional question raised but not passed upon below, it is nevertheless impossible to decide the question as to charter authority for the ordinance, intelligently and fairly, without deciding if the construction placed upon the charter offends the Constitution; and if it will bear a construction that would be constitutional the law demands that it be so construed rather than the construction that renders it unconstitutional. If the array of decisions I have cited leave any doubts that they are the law by which we are bound, I could add other cases to the same effect almost without end. And the constitutional pro*723vision necessary to consider in making that construction is Code Ann. § 2-115 (Const. of 1945), and if construed to authorize this ordinance which constitutes a prior restraint of both good and bad pictures, we know that would, under the K. Gordon Murray Productions case render it unconstitutional. If construed not to authorize a prior restraint ordinance as to non-obscene pictures it is constitutional. When the relevant charter provision expressly limits the regulation authorized to preventing the exhibition of obscene, licentious and kindred pictures which is constitutional, it should be so accepted; thus affirming the judgment holding that it does not authorize this ordinance which places a prior restraint on all non-objectionable and hence constitutionally protected pictures. The case is that simple, and due respect for the decisions of this court herein cited demands a judgment of affirmance. I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice Candler concurs in this dissent.