Nov. 24, 1964 - The Illinois Supreme Court ruled today that a 1962 Chicago nightclub performance by comedian Lenny Bruce was not obscene.
The high court, by its formal opinion, thus reversed a June 18 ruling that had upheld Bruce’s conviction in the Chicago municipal court. That decision had stood until last July 7 when the state high court vacated the ruling because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in an Ohio case.
“Our original opinion recognized the defendant’s right to satirize society’s attitudes on contemporary social problems and to express his ideas, however bizarre, as long as the method used in so doing was not objectionable as to render the entire performance obscene,” the Illinois court said.
But, in view of the U.S. Supreme Court decision, the state high court said it is now clear that “the balancing test” rule is no longer a constitutional means of deciding the obscenity of material.
Bruce was arrested Dec. 5, 1962, while performing in a north side nightclub.
The Illinois Supreme Court had originally held Bruce’s performance objectionable because its dominant appeal was to the prurient interest of the average adult.
The Ohio case which caused the Illinois court to vacate its order in the Bruce case involved a Cleveland Heights movie owner who had exhibited a sexy French film, “The Lovers.” The U.S. Supreme Court in that case held that the portrayal of sex did not constitute grounds for denying the constitutional protection of freedom of expression.
On its own motion, the Illinois high court then asked for reargument of the Bruce case. New briefs were filed, and the case was reargued last September. The decision of the Supreme Court in the Ohio case was held to be controlling.
Bruce was also convicted by a three-judge panel in New York criminal court on Nov. 4 of giving obscene performances last April at the Café Au Go Go in Greenwich Village. The 39-year-old entertainer, who faces up to a year in jail on each of three counts, will be sentenced Dec. 14. An appeal is regarded as certain.
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