Wojnarowicz v. American Family Association
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
745 F. Supp. 130 (1990)

- Written by Sarah Holley, JD
Facts
David Wojnarowicz was a multimedia artist focused on raising awareness about the AIDS epidemic within the homosexual community. The National Endowment for the Arts helped subsidize an exhibit of Wojnarowicz’s work, several of which depicted homosexual sexual images. The American Family Association (AFA) (defendant) was a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting Judeo-Christian values in American society. The AFA distributed to members of Congress, prominent Christian leaders, and the media a pamphlet that contained unauthorized reproductions of fragments of Wojnarowicz’s work, specifically of the homosexual sexual images, and criticized the use of government funds to subsidize such “offensive” art. Wojnarowicz brought suit against the AFA to enjoin further publication of the pamphlet based on violations of the New York Artists’ Authorship Rights Act, among other claims.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Conner, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 899,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 47,000 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.

