Paramount Pictures, Inc. v. Langer
District Court, D. North Dakota · 1938-07-14 · cited 11×
The case involved a challenge by Paramount Pictures, its subsidiaries Minnesota Amusement Company and American Amusement Company, to Chapter 165 of the 1937 North Dakota Laws, which prohibited the operation of motion picture theaters owned, controlled, or managed by film producers or distributors. The plaintiffs operated ten affected theaters in the state and contended that the statute arbitrarily deprived them of property rights without due process or equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment, imposed burdens on interstate commerce, and conflicted with federal copyright laws. The defendants argued that the Act represented a valid exercise of state authority to address competitive practices in the exhibition of films. The court examined whether the law's broad prohibition on any producer interest in theaters, regardless of control or size, bore a reasonable relation to a legitimate public purpose such as preventing monopolies or unfair trade.