U.S. Will Not Appeal Ruling on NEA Grants

The Justice Department has announced that it will not appeal a ruling that strikes down an anti-obscenity pledge required of National Endowment for the Arts grant recipients. The ruling applied to separate lawsuits filed by the Newport Harbor Art Museum and the Bella Lewitzky Dance Company, objecting to a requirement that grant recipients pledge not to produce “obscene” works.

Lewitzky, filing her suit last summer, compared the congressionally mandated pledge to the loyalty oaths of the 1940s and 1950s. Several months later, Newport Harbor became the first museum in the country to challenge the restriction.

On Jan. 9, 1991, U.S. District Judge John G. Davies rejected each of the NEA’s arguments defending the anti-obscenity pledge. Newport Harbor’s attorney, James V. Selna, said Thursday that he had not been notified of the Justice Department’s decision that it would not appeal Davies’ ruling, but that he was not surprised by it.

“There were some signals that the appeal would not be pursued,” he said. For instance, the department had not ordered a transcript of the original hearing. “They were kind of half-hearted,” Selna said.

The NEA already has paid for four of the five grants to Newport Harbor--$80,000 out of $100,000--that were the subject of the initial dispute, Selna said, noting that the final grant has not been paid only because the ownership of the artwork has changed.

“Our sense was that all parties to the litigation saw it as a diversion from their real missions, to support the arts in our community and nationally,” said Selna, who is also a Newport Harbor trustee.