11-Mutual Decision

Before class on March 17th, read the 1915 Supreme Court decision, Mutual Film Company v. The Industrial Commission of Ohio and review Black, pp. 15-18.  The Mutual Decision affirmed the constitutionality of the kind of pre-production film censorship we have studied so far this semester  The text will be difficult for many of you to read and we will discuss it both in terms of its legal reasoning and its style of writing. 

By Friday, March 20th at midnight, submit a post summarizing the issues in the case, the arguments on both sides, and Justice McKenna’s reasoning in the decision.  Then talk about whether the case was difficult to read (or not) and why.  Conclude by saying how the decision might be relevant to the censorship history of Scarface.  

For your blog postings do not use the Leave a Reply box below but the New Post link in the blue area at the top of the page. Also remember to check your name (under People) and Mutual Decision (under Assignments) in the category boxes to the right of the posting area.  

Next week (see prompt 12), you will post your 3-17 in-class rewriting of Justice McKenna’s Mutual Decision to the blog and then vote (using the comment function) on which rewriting you think is the best and why.  See the sheet I put together for the assignment after class at:  
http://mason.gmu.edu/~kthomps4/101-21-s09/mutual_in-class.htm