Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/342/143/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-11-14 21:33:55
Document Index: 95072787

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2', '§ 1', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 29', '§ 1', '§ 2']

LORAIN JOURNAL CO. V. UNITED STATES, 342 U. S. 143 - Volume 342 - 1951 - Full Text - US Supreme Court Center - USSC Cases - Nolo
US Supreme Court Center > Volume 342 > LORAIN JOURNAL CO. V. UNITED STATES, 342 U. S. 143 (1951) > Full Text
(c) The right claimed by the publisher as a private business concern to select its customers and to refuse to accept advertisements from whomever it pleases is neither absolute nor exempt from regulation. Its exercise as a purposeful means of monopolizing interstate commerce is prohibited by the Sherman Act. P. 342 U. S. 155.
The principal question here is whether a newspaper publisher's conduct constituted an attempt to monopolize interstate commerce, justifying the injunction issued against it under §§ 2 and 4 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. [Footnote 1] For the reasons hereafter stated, we hold that the injunction was justified.
This is a civil action, instituted by the United States in the District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, against The Lorain Journal Company, an Ohio corporation, publishing, daily except Sunday, in the City of Lorain, Ohio, a newspaper here called the Journal. The complaint alleged that the corporation, together with four of its officials, was engaging in a combination and conspiracy in restraint of interstate commerce in violation of § 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, and in a combination and conspiracy to monopolize such commerce in violation of § 2 of the Act, as well as attempting to monopolize such commerce in violation of § 2. [Footnote 2] The District Court declined to issue a temporary injunction but, after trial, found that the parties were engaging in an attempt to monopolize as charged. Confining itself to that issue, the court enjoined them from continuing the attempt. 92 F.Supp. 794. They appealed to this Court under the Expediting Act of 1903, 32 Stat. 823, as amended, 62 Stat. 989, 15 U.S.C. (Supp. IV) § 29, and the issues before us are those arising from that finding and the terms of the injunction.
There can be little doubt today that the immediate dissemination of news gathered from throughout the nation or the world by agencies specially organized for that purpose is a part of interstate commerce. Associated Press v. United States, 326 U. S. 1, 326 U. S. 14; Associated Press v. Labor Board, 301 U. S. 103. The same is true of national advertising originating throughout the nation and offering products for sale on a national scale. The local dissemination of such news and advertising requires continuous interstate transmission of materials and payments, to say nothing of the interstate commerce involved in the sale and delivery of products sold. The decision in Blumenstock Bros. v. Curtis Pub. Co., 252 U. S. 436, related to the making of contracts for advertising, rather than to the preparation and dissemination of advertising. Moreover, the view there stated, that the making of contracts by parties outside of a state for the insertion of advertising material in periodicals of nationwide circulation did not amount to interstate commerce, rested expressly
Assuming the interstate character of the commerce involved, it seems clear that, if all the newspapers in a city, in order to monopolize the dissemination of news and advertising by eliminating a competing radio station, conspired to accept no advertisements from anyone who advertised over that station, they would violate §§ 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. Cf. Fashion Originators' Guild v. Federal Trade Comm'n, 312 U. S. 457, 312 U. S. 465; Binderup v. Pathe Exchange, 263 U. S. 291; Federal Trade Comm'n v. Beech-Nut Packing Co., 257 U. S. 441; Loewe v.Lawlor, 208 U. S. 274; William Goldman Theaters v. Loew's, Inc., 150 F.2d 738. It is consistent with that result to hold here that a single newspaper, already enjoying a substantial monopoly in its area, violates the "attempt to monopolize" clause of § 2 when it uses its monopoly to destroy threatened competition. [Footnote 8]
Powered by Justia US Supreme Court Center: LORAIN JOURNAL CO. V. UNITED STATES, 342 U. S. 143 (1951)