The US Supreme Court in ''Joseph Burstyn, Inc v. Wilson'' 1952 held that the New York State blasphemy law was an unconstitutional prior restraint on freedom of speech. The court stated that "It is not the business of government in our nation to suppress real or imagined attacks upon a particular religious doctrine, whether they appear in publications, speeches or motion pictures."
===United Kingdom===
Blasphemy laws in England have never been repealed. The last person in Britain to be sent to prison for blasphemy was John William Gott on 9 December 1921. He had three previous convictions for blasphemy when he was prosecuted for publishing two pamphlets which satirised the biblical story of Jesus entering Jerusalem (Matthew 21:2-7), comparing Jesus to a circus clown. He was sentenced to nine months' hard labour.
In 1977, Denis Lemon, the editor of Gay News was found guilty of blasphemous libel for publishing a poem (Whitehouse v. Lemon). Lemon was fined £500 and sentenced to a suspended sentence of nine months imprisonment. It had been "touch and go", said the judge, whether he would actually send Lemon to jail.
The last prosecution for blasphemy in Scotland was in 1843.
===Pakistan ===
Christians in Pakistan protested Dan Brown's novel ''The Da Vinci Code'' as blasphemous, with support of Muslims as well. On 3 June, 2006, Pakistan banned the film.
===United Kingdom===
Blasphemy laws in England have never been repealed. The last person in Britain to be sent to prison for blasphemy was John William Gott on 9 December 1921. He had three previous convictions for blasphemy when he was prosecuted for publishing two pamphlets which satirised the biblical story of Jesus entering Jerusalem (Matthew 21:2-7), comparing Jesus to a circus clown. He was sentenced to nine months' hard labour.
In 1977, Denis Lemon, the editor of Gay News was found guilty of blasphemous libel for publishing a poem (Whitehouse v. Lemon). Lemon was fined £500 and sentenced to a suspended sentence of nine months imprisonment. It had been "touch and go", said the judge, whether he would actually send Lemon to jail.
The last prosecution for blasphemy in Scotland was in 1843.
