Time to Give Up Censorship Move

The senseless legal action that the City of Santa Ana has pursued for a decade against the Mitchell Brothers adult theater continues to burn up city funds for which there are better uses than a misguided and futile effort to censor films.

Now the City Council has another good chance to call it quits. In its new budget, the council authorized another $200,000 in legal fees to keep up the fight. But City Atty. Edward J. Cooper is concerned at how fast money is being spent, and he may tell the council Monday that he needs more if the city is to keep up its vendetta against the movie house.

The city has already spent more than $300,000. That’s in addition to as much as $1 million in legal fees that the theater has incurred defending itself against the city, fees that a court has ordered the city to pay.

It has been 10 years, and the city still hasn’t made its case against the theater or proved that movies that are shown elsewhere without incident are obscene. The legal action never should have been started in the first place. After so many years of fruitless effort, it’s time to drop it before the city government wastes any more taxes trying to control the freedom of choice of its residents.