What the US Constitution Does

Two primary areas:

Set up a system of government and give it delineated powers (such as the power to make copyright law).
Guarantees certain rights to the people in the 1st ten amendments - called the Bill of Rights (such as freedom of speech)

The First Amendment

Speech in film:

The supreme court's unanimous 1952 ruling in "The Miracle Case" eventually brought filmmaking under the protective umbrella of the First Amendment, overturning its long-outdated decision in Mutual v. Ohio (1915).

Speech & Press are Now Freedom of Expression

The supreme court has divided expression into 3 basic categories:

Political expression - political and social expression has almost unlimited protection.
Commercial expression - has limited expression - the gov. can have reasonable time, place and manner restrictions.
Speech that can be banned:
- Obscenity

Censorship In Film

Three forms of censorship:

From governments
From pressure groups (esp. religion)
Self regulation
The industry is self regulated - through the MPAA rating Board (CARA)
G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17
(Most nations have a rating system)

Censorship: Distribution

Your distributor sometimes will require you to make a film that is rated R.