Banning Of Lady Chatterley's Lover

Going back to Greek philosophers, Socrates had been charged with the worship of strange gods and with the corruption of the youth he taught. Socrates believed that he would rather die than not be able to voice his opinions so he calmly drank the poison (hemlock) and then sat with his friends in philosophical conversation (Zueschner 17). Ironically his disciple Plato was for intellectual, religious, and artistic

Though the First Amendment in the United States Constitution forbids Congress from enacting laws that would regulate speech or press, many states have passed laws in contradiction to the First Amendment. The First Amendment formally recognizes the right of Americans to think and speak freely. Under Article 10 of the Human Rights Act, everyone has the right of freedom of expression. This right includes freedom to hold opinions and to receive and communicate information and ideas without inference by public authority and without boundaries. The Constitution under the First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech or of the press” therefore outlawing a national system of censorship, but under the Tariff Act (1930), “United States Customs has the power to seize any material that is being imported in into the country and that it feels might be obscene; it must then submit that material to a federal court in order for its obscenity, or otherwise, to be judicially determined” (Green 335).

This situation was to remain in effect until 1959, the year Barney Rosset, the owner of Grove Press, successfully challenged the ban on the uncensored third version. When Grove published Lady Chatterley’s Lover in its unexpurgated form, Postmaster General Christenberry issued an order to ban the novel form the mails. The Postmaster General declared the book obscene and banned the book. Grove Press retaliated and sued back. When Grove v. Christenberry went to trial in 1959, Judge Fredrick Van Pelt Bryan decided that the book was not obscene, lifted the ban, and questioned the postmaster general’s right to determine what was considered obscene and what was not.

Plato is one of the many that believed that censorship was necessary especially amongst children. He argued that artistic representations have a strong impact on the formation of character. He believed that even if the tales told are true, they should not be taught to “thoughtless young people.” Plato writes, “A child cannot distinguish the allegorical sense from the literal, and the ideas he takes in at that age are likely to become indelibly fixed; hence the great importance of seeing that the first stories he hears shall be designed to produce the best possible effect on his character” (372). Though some form of censorship is needed when it comes to what children are exposed to, the question is: Where is the line drawn? According to philosopher John Stuart Mill, the decision on whether to permit or ban actions an

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