Da Vinci Censorship By American Samoa Would Be Unconstitutional

The Attorney General of American Samoa, Sialega Malaetasi Togafau, last Tuesday issued an opinion finding that any governmental censorship of the movie, The DaVinci Code, would be unconstitutional. Today's Pacific Magazine reports that the islands' governor, Gov. Togiola Tulafono, requested the opinion after members of clergy asked the governor to ban the movie's scheduled opening in Pago Pago on June 30th. Attorney General Togafau said that both the Constitution of American Samoa, and the U.S. Constitution, whose basic guaranties of fundamental rights apply to the island, ban this kind of interference with freedom of expression. (As to the applicability of the U.S. Constitution's guaranties of fundamental rights to American Samoa, see King v. Morton, 172 U.S. App. D.C. 126 (DC Cir., 1975) [LEXIS link].