Controversial Works

Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has faced censorship since its
publication in 1885. Alleged racist material has been most often cited for
banning the book in schools.

The book American Aurora illustrates the use of newspapers as partisan
instruments and the precariousness of First Amendment press freedom in
early U.S. history.

Behind the Green Door (1972) was the first hard-core pornographic movie
widely distributed in the U.S. It led to numerous obscenity prosecutions,
particularly in the South.

The 1950s Confidential magazine was the founder of tabloid journalism in
America. The magazine folded under the weight of legal bills after libel
investigations.

Deep Throat (1972), a pornographic film, introduced mainstream society to
pornography and was banned as obscene in 23 states. Obscenity is not
protected by the First Amendment.

Ecstasy (1933) was the first film blocked by the U.S. Customs Service from
entering the U.S. Court battles over the film pitted indecency laws against
the First Amendment.

The book Fanny Hill was the focus of one of the earliest obscenity cases in
the U.S. In 1966 the Court ruled the book was not obscene in Memoirs v.
Massachusetts.

Hair, a musical, sparked First Amendment controversy with its obscene
content. The original production was a harbinger of the changes taking
place in American culture.

Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors” was involved in a
First Amendment case in which a circuit court said the First Amendment did
not protect the book.

Oh! Calcutta!, the first Broadway show to display full frontal nudity,
opened in 1969. The play inflamed some public officials, leading to
censorship and First Amendment arguments.

Attempts to block the controversial racist film The Birth of a Nation were
common, but there were no First Amendment challenges to the censorship
attempts.

The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most controversial novels in recent
U.S. history. Schools have banned and restricted the book for its profanity
and sexual content.

Censors have repeatedly tried to remove The Chocolate War from library
shelves, but have been stymied by First Amendment–based rights of
intellectual freedom and the right to read.

The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence was the first book to be censored by
the government prior to publication. The courts said national security
concerns trumped First Amendment rights.

The Devil in Miss Jones was key in the adult film industry’s quest to be
protected by the First Amendment rather than as pornography, which can be
deemed obscene.

While conservative Christian groups denounced the controversial film The
Last Temptation of Christ, Universal Studios publicly defended it as a
matter of First Amendment rights.

The book Ulysses led to an obscenity trial in 1933 in which a district
judge, addressing First Amendment freedom of expression, refused to declare
the book obscene.