into a field
previously dominated by the other sex.
I'm glad you're in favor of men's lib.
Say, let's relax.
Do you feel like relaxing?
Madame Just-ess, I hope you aren't
finding our national capital too dull,
after the grandeur of Disneyland.
You don't think much of California,
do you?
Oh, I try not to think of it at all.
Why don't you try climbing
some of our mountains.
Oh, I have, I have.
I admire your mountains.
It's your valleys
that make me nervous.
Now, Madame Just-ess, I would like
your opinion on a point of law
concerning that great American
art form, the motion picture.
Help yourself.
Oh, thank you.
Now, I was wondering if, by any
chance, you'd seen a film called...
The Naked Nymphomaniac?
That's the one.
Now, you probably didn't even notice
I wasn't there.
- I noticed.
- Oh, you did?
Well.
Well,
I wonder if you found anything
unpleasant in the picture.
First of all, I see no reason
to overturn the lower court.
Anyone who'd seen that film
would realize that
The Naked Nymphomaniac
is a total offense
against the public sensibility.
It's sickening, degrading, disgusting...
My, my, my, my, my, my.
As bad as all that?
I wonder if you can put your finger
on exactly what it was
that offended you?
Was it the title?
Some particular word
in the title? "Naked", is that it?
What if they called it
The Fully Clothed Nymphomaniac?
Or maybe it was the other word
that bothered you?
"Nymphomaniac".
Supposing they called it
The Naked Methodist?
Or The Naked Daughter
of the American Revolution?
Are you finished?
Madame Just-ess, I am a long way
from being finished,
but I'll pause briefly, in case
there's something you'd like to say.
Thank you.
Let me ask you something.
Would you call a female governor
a governess?
Is a woman composer
a composeress? No.
And her sex
is entirely beside the point.
And a justice of the Supreme Court
is a justice, not Madame Just-ess.
Now, Mr. Justice, I submit that we
are failing in our duty on this court
if we don't try to stop the avalanche
of prurient slop...
- Madame, if you'll...
- I'm not finished!
Which is about to bury us.
Are we doing our job
if we permit anything?
What are we permitting?
Violence in the streets,
kids on drugs, filth, pornography...
Who slaps the labels on? You? Me?
- Somebody better.
- No, thank you.
I think it's unconstitutional
to set myself up as a censor.
Refusing to look at something
is censorship.
I don't look at television.
That doesn't make it illegal.
That's not the point.
Seeing that film is material
to making a judgment.
If you'd spent ten minutes
in that screening room, five minutes,
you would see how obscene,
how outrageous...
Censorship is an outrage!
What about a training film
for terrorists?
A free lecture, How to Make
a Nuclear Bomb in Your Basement.
Do you condone inciting
to violence?
- No, ma'am.
- What about inciting to decadence?
- Define "decay".
- That's what we're here for.
- Not me.
- We'd better try.
The people of this country have only
one absolute protection against chaos:
The law.
You and I were appointed
to this court for only one reason:
To uphold and sustain that law.
Watch out, you can't turn the law
into a straitjacket.
The law's gotta be a suit of clothes
a man can wear.
It's gotta fit easy.
Be comfortable.
Law shouldn't strap a man in
at the throat or the brain or the crotch.
That's vivid.
You're making Maloney
more important than the law.
- He is more important.
- This court doesn't try men.
We put their trials on trial.
That's it. We're constantly examining
the witness who isn't there.
All we ever get to see are lawyers,
cold records, cold briefs.
Where's the human being? Where's
the pain? We've gotta touch flesh.
I'll tell you where the pain is.
It's in the people who get hurt.
The innocent kid
who sits in a dark theater
while Maloney's filth