City of Lynchburg v. Dominion Theatres, Inc.

The Dominion Theatres, Inc., operators of moving picture theatres in the city of Lynchburg, secured from the owners a film known as “The Birth of a Baby” to be shown there. A permit had been issued by the Division of Motion Picture Censorship for the State of Virginia granting the right to exhibit the film. The city manager of Lynchburg with the approval of the city council notified the manager of the theatre corporation that the picture could not be publicly shown because it violated certain city ordinances which prohibited the showing of obscene and indecent pictures.

The theatre corporation…