Summary
upholding injunction enjoining commercialization of documentary on conditions in institution for the criminally insane. Film was an outrageous and "indecent intrusion into the most private aspects of the [inmate's] lives."
Summary of this case from United States v. Ming Sen ShiueOpinion
No. 621.
June 15, 1970, OCTOBER TERM, 1969.
Sup. Jud. Ct. Mass. Certiorari denied. Reported below: 356 Mass. 251, 249 N. E. 2d 610.
MR. JUSTICE HARLAN, with whom MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS and MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN join, dissenting.
Petitioners seek review in this Court of a decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court enjoining the commercial distribution to general audiences of the film "Titticut Follies." Petitioners' film is a "documentary" of life in Bridgewater State Hospital for the criminally insane. Its stark portrayal of patient-routine and treatment of the inmates is at once a scathing indictment of the inhumane conditions that prevailed at the time of the film and an undeniable infringement of the