Newsgroups: alt.censorship,alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,misc.legal
From: kadie@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [UPI] Federal judge rules NEA decency clause unconstitutional
Message-ID: <1992Jun10.040756.10831@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1992 04:07:56 GMT

Copyright 1992 by UPI.  Reposted with permission from the ClariNet
Electronic Newspaper newsgroup clari.news.law.crime,
clari.news.gov.usa, & clari.news.issues.  For more info on ClariNet,
write to info@clarinet.com or phone 1-800-USE-NETS.

	LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- A federal judge declared unconstitutional Tuesday
the decency clause the National Endowment for the Arts used in
determining who receives grant money, saying it was too vague and
overbroad in restricting artists' freedom of speech.
	In a 44-page ruling, U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima found
that ``artistic expression, no less than academic speech or journalism
is at the core of a democratic society's cultural and political
vitality.''
	The court also ruled that four artists will be entitled to grants
denied by ex-NEA Chairman John Frohnmayer if they can prove at trial
that the NEA denied the grants for political rather than aesthetic
reasons.
	Congress adopted the decency provision in November 1990. The Bush
administration argued it should be upheld because the NEA had limited
funds and should be able to have a procedure by which the money is
distributed.
	The provision required the NEA chairperson to ensure that ``artistic
excellence and artistic merit are the criteria by which applications are
judged, taking into consideration general standards of decency and
respect for the diverse beliefs and values of the American public.''
	The artists, Karen Finley, John Fleck, Holly Hughes and Tim Miller,
who became known as the ``NEA Four'' challenged the provision by filing
a lawsuit in September 1990 in Los Angeles federal court seeking an
order overruling their grant rejections.
	Fleck and Miller are Los Angeles area performing artists, and Finley
and Hughes are performing artists from New York.
	Hughes said she was very happy about Tashima's decision.
	``I'm very happy that the court has decided that people who receive
money from the government don't have to forfeit rights guaranteed to
them in that government's Constitution,'' she said.``
	The artists' work is highly political. All but Finley is homosexual
and the artists include homosexual and lesbian themes prominently in
their work, which has received broad critical acclaim.
	Finley's performances are stridently feminist in tone. She has
appeared on stage partially clothed, her body smeared with melted
chocolate and alfalfa sprouts to symbolize denigration of women by
forcing them to wallow in excrement and sperm.
	Finley and Miller previously received numerous NEA grants.
	The plight of the four attracted national attention when Frohnmayer
overruled the unanimous vote of grant-review panel and rejected the
fellowships.
	The decision was made after Frohnmayer reportedly told a meeting of
arts activists that the NEA's precarious political situation
necessitated denial of the grants.
	According to the lawsuit, Frohnmayer sacrificed the artists ``because
of the controversial political content of their work. He did so with the
aim of suppressing the expression of the plaintiff's ideas.''
	The suit asked for an additional $50,000 in damages to Finley, whose
privacy rights were violated, the complaint charged, by an alleged NEA
leak to conservative columnists of her confidential NEA grant
application.
	The NEA gives grants to artists and arts institutions nationwide. Its
political turmoil began in April 1989 with the NEA-funded work of
photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. A show of his work, which included
homo-erotic art, was the subject of a state court obscenity prosecution
in Cincinnati.
--
Carl Kadie -- kadie@cs.uiuc.edu -- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

From caf-talk Caf Jun  8 14:30:23 1992