Cultural Values and Government
Cultural Values and Government
Walter E. Dellinger III, 102 Nw. U. L. Rev. 479 (2008)
In January 1996, the Ninth Circuit decided Finley v. National Endowment for the Arts. I was acting Solicitor General at the time, and the issue came quickly to my desk, along with a visit from the Director of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the excellent actress Jane Alexander. The case involved the constitutionality of the Helms Amendment, which required that the NEA take decency into account in choosing who should be awarded artistic grants. Karen Finley was one of those whose expected grant did not get renewed after the decency criteria had been invoked.