Source: http://openjurist.org/327/us/146
Timestamp: 2017-02-21 22:02:37
Document Index: 422963837

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 396', '§ 369', '§ 369', '§ 211', '§ 334', '§ 334', '§ 211', '§ 10', '§ 224', '§ 224', '§ 229', '§ 229', '§ 230', '§ 230', '§ 226', '§ 226', '§ 221', '§ 221', '§ 222', '§ 222', '§ 235', '§ 235', '§ 240', '§ 240', '§ 230', '§ 230', '§ 229', '§ 229', '§ 334', '§ 334', '§ 338', '§ 338', '§ 344', '§ 344', '§ 3929', '§ 259', '§ 259']

327 US 146 Hannegan v. Esquire | OpenJurist
327 U.S. 146 - Hannegan v. Esquire Homethe United States Reports327 U.S.
The postal laws make a clear-cut division between mailable and nonmailable material. The four classes of mailable matter are generally described by objective standards which refer in part to their contents, but not to the quality of their contents.9 The more particular descriptions of the first,10 third,11 and fourth12 classes follow the same pattern, as do the first three conditions specified for second-class matter.13 If, therefore, the Fourth condition is read in the context of the postal laws of which it is an integral part, it, too, must be taken to supply standards which relate to the format of the publication and to the nature of its contents, but not to their quality, worth, or value. In that view, 'literature' or the 'arts' mean no more than productions which convey ideas by words, pictures, or drawings.
The policy of Congress has been clear. It has been to encourage the distribution of periodicals which disseminated 'information of a public character' or which were devoted to 'literature, the sciences, arts, or some special industry,' because it was thought that those publications as a class contributed to the public good.14 The standards prescribed in the Fourth condition have been criticized, but not on the ground that they provide for censorship.15 As stated by the Postal Commission of 1911, H.Doc. 559, 62nd Cong., 2d Sess., p. 142: 'The original object in placing on second-class matter a rate far below that on any other class of mail was to encourage the dissemination of news and of current literature of educational value. This object has been only in part attained. The low rate has helped to stimulate an enormous mass of periodicals, many of which are of little utility for the cause of popular education. Others are of excellent quality, but the experience of the post office has shown the impossibility of making a satisfactory test based upon literary or educational values. To attempt to do so would be to set up a censorship of the press. Of necessity the words of the statute—'devoted to literature, the sciences, arts, or some special industry'—must have a broad interpretation.'
We may assume that Congress has a broad power of classification and need not open second-class mail to publications of all types. The categories of publications entitled to that classification have indeed varied through the years.16 And the Court held in Ex parte Jackson, 96 U.S. 727, 24 L.Ed. 877, that Congress could constitutionally make it a crime to send fraudulent or obscene material through the mails. But grave constitutional questions are immediately raised once it is said that the use of the mails is a privilege which may be extended or withheld on any grounds whatsoever. See the dissents of Mr. Justice Brandeis and Mr. Justice Holmes in United States ex rel. Milwaukee Social Democrat Publishing Co. v. Burleson, 255 U.S. 407, 421—423, 430—432, 437, 438, 41 S.Ct. 352, 357, 358, 360, 361, 363, 65 L.Ed. 704. Under that view the second-class rate could be granted on condition that certain economic or political ideas not be disseminated. The provisions of the Fourth condition would have to be far more explicit for us to assume that Congress made such a radical departure from our traditions17 and undertook to clothe the Postmaster General with the power to supervise the tastes of the reading public of the country.18
It is plain, as we have said, that the favorable second-class rates were granted periodicals meeting the requirements of the Fourth condition, so that the public good might be served through a dissemination of the class of periodicals described. But that is a far cry from assuming that Congress had any idea that each applicant for the second-class rate must convince the Postmaster General that his publication positively contributes to the public good or public welfare. Under our system of government there is an accommodation for the widest varieties of tastes and ideas.19 What is good literature, what has educational value, what is refined public information, what is good art, varies with individuals as it does from one generation to another. There doubtless would be a contrariety of views20 concerning Cervantes' Don Quixote, Shakespeare's Venus & Adonis, or Zola's Nana. But a requirement that literature or art conform to some norm prescribed by an official smacks of an ideology foreign to our system. The basic values implicit in the requirements of the Fourth condition can be served only by uncensored distribution of literature. From the multitude of competing offerings the public will pick and choose. What seems to one to be trash may have for others fleeting or even enduring values. But to withdraw the second-class rate from this publication today because its contents seemed to one official not good for the public wou d sanction withdrawal of the second-class rate tomorrow from another periodical whose social or economic views seemed harmful to another official. The validity of the obscenity laws is recognition that the mails may not be used to satisfy all tastes, no matter how perverted. But Congress has left the Postmaster General with no power to prescribed standards for the literature or the art which a mailable periodical disseminates.
This is not to say that there is nothing left to the Postmaster General under the Fourth condition. It is his duty to 'execute all laws relative to the Postal Service.' Rev.Stat. § 396, 5 U.S.C. § 369, 5 U.S.C.A. § 369. For example, questions will arise as they did in Houghton v. Payne, 194 U.S. 88, 24 S.Ct. 590, 48 L.Ed. 888; Bates & Guild Co. v. Payne, 194 U.S. 106, 24 S.Ct. 595, 48 L.Ed. 894, and Smith v. Hitchcock, 226 U.S. 53, 33 S.Ct. 6, 57 L.Ed. 119, whether the publication which seeks the favorable second-class rate is a periodical as defined in the Fourth condition or a book or other type of publication. And it may appear that the information contained in a periodical may not be of a 'public character.' But the power to determine whether a periodical (which is mailable) contains information of a public character, literature or art does not include the further power to determine whether the contents meet some standard of the public good or welfare.
Congress has neither defined its conception of 'literature' nor has it authorized the Postmaster General to do so. But it has placed a limitation upon what is to be deemed 'literature' for a privilege which the Court rightly calls a form of subsidy. Matters that are declared nonmailable (Criminal Code § 211, 35 Stat. 1129, 36 Stat. 1339, 18 U.S.C. § 334, 18 U.S.C.A. § 334) are of course not 'literature' within the scope of the second-class privilege. But the Postmaster General does not contend that the periodical with which we are concerned was nonmailable. He merely contends that it was not devoted to the kind of 'literature' which may claim the subsidy of second-class matter. But since Congress has seen fit to allow 'literature' conveyed by periodicals to have the second-class privilege without making any allowable classification of 'literature,' except only that nonmailable matter as defined by § 211 of the Criminal Code is excluded, the area of 'literature, the sciences, arts' includes all composition of words, pictorial representation, or notations that are intelligible to any portion of the population, n matter whether their appeal is extensive or esoteric. Since the Postmaster General disavows the nonmailability of the issues of the periodical he had before him and since Congress did not qualify 'literature, the sciences, arts' by any standards of taste or edification or public elevation, the Postmaster General exceeded his powers in denying this periodical a second-class permit.
'mailable matter of the second class shall embrace all newspapers and other periodical publications which are issued at stated intervals, and as frequently as four times a year and are within the conditions named in sections twelve and fourteen.' § 10 of the Classification Act of 1879, 20 Stat. 358, 39 U.S.C. § 224, 39 U.S.C.A. § 224. For other periodical publications which are included in second-class matter, see 37 Stat. 550, 39 U.S.C. § 229, 39 U.S.C.A. § 229; 31 Stat. 660, 39 U.S.C. § 230, 39 U.S.C.A. § 230.
It was not contended that Esquire Magazine does not comply with the first three conditions of 39 U.S.C. § 226, 39 U.S.C.A. § 226, set forth in note 2, supra.
Sec. 7 of the Classification Act of 1879, as amended, 39 U.S.C. § 221, 39 U.S.C.A. § 221, provides:
First class. 'Mailable matter of the first class shall embrace letters, postal cards, and all matters wholly or partly in writing * * *.' 39 U.S.C. § 222, 39 U.S.C.A. § 222.
Third class. 'Mail matter of the third class shall include books, circulars, and other matter wholly in print (except newspapers and other periodicals entered as second-class matter), proof sheets, corrected proof sheets, and manuscript copy accompanying same, merchandise (including farm and factory products) and all other mailable matter not included in the first or second class, or in the fourth class * * *.' 39 U.S.C. § 235, 39 U.S.C.A. § 235.
Fourth class. 'Mail matter of the fourth class shall weigh in excess of eight ounces, and shall include books, circulars, and other matter wholly in print (except newspapers and other periodicals entered as second-class matter), proof sheets, corrected proof sheets and manuscript copy accompanying same, merchandise (including farm and factory products), and all other mailable matter not included in the first or second class, or in the third class as defined in section 235 of this title, not exceeding eleven pounds in weight, nor greater in size than seventy-two inches in length and girth combined, nor in form or kind likely to injure the person of any postal employee or damage the mail equipment or other mail matter and not of a character perishable within a period reasonably required for transportation and delivery.' 39 U.S.C. § 240, 39 U.S.C.A. § 240.
See Report of the Postal Commission of 1906, H.Doc, 608, 59th Cong., 2d Sess., pp. xxxvi—xxxvii:
As we have seen, the Fourth condition bars admission to second-class privileges of publications 'designed primarily for advertising purposes, or for free circulation, or for circulation at nominal rates.' Publications of state departments of agriculture were not granted the special rate until the Act of June 6, 1900, 31 Stat. 660, 39 U.S.C. § 230, 39 U.S.C.A. § 230. And that was not done for publications of benevolent and fraternal societies, of institutions of learning, trade unions, strictly professional, iterary, historical and scientific societies until the Act of August 24, 1912, 37 Stat. 550, 39 U.S.C. § 229, 39 U.S.C.A. § 229.
See Deutsch, Freedom of the Press and of the Mails, 36 Mich.L.Rev. 703, 715—727.
When Congress has been concerned with the content of matter passing through the mails, it has enacted criminal statutes making, for example, obscene material (35 Stat. 1129, 18 U.S.C. § 334, 18 U.S.C.A. § 334), fraudulent material (35 Stat. 1130, 18 U.S.C. § 338, 18 U.S.C.A. § 338), and seditious literature (40 Stat. 230, 18 U.S.C. § 344, 18 U.S.C.A. § 344), nonmailable in any class. And it has granted the Postmaster General power to refuse to deliver mail for any person whom he finds to be using the mails in conducting lotteries or fraudulent schemes. Rev.Stat. § 3929, 39 U.S.C. § 259, 39 U.S.C.A. § 259.