Court Opinion

ID: 9419687
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:51:02.883464+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:19:26.275759
License: Public Domain

Me. Justice Robeets.
I think the judgment should be reversed. In respect of most of the questions involved I might rest on the discussion by Judge Swan in his dissenting opinion in the District Court. The novelty and importance of the questions, and the summary disposition of them in the court’s opinion, have, however, moved me to state my views in detail.
This case deals with “news.” News is information about matters of general interest. The term has been defined as “a report of a recent event.” The report may be made to one moved by curiosity or to one who wishes to make some *30practical use of it. Newspapers obtain such reports and publish them as a part of a business conducted for profit. The proprietor of a newspaper, when he employs a person to inquire and report, engages personal service. I suppose no one would deny that he is entitled to the exclusive use of the report rendered as a result of the service for which he contracts and pays. I suppose that one rendering such service is free to contract with his employer that the product of his inquiries — the news he furnishes his employer— shall be used solely by the employer and not imparted to another.
As I have said, news is the result of effort in the investigation of recent events. Every newspaper is interested in procuring news of happenings in its vicinity, and maintains a staff for that purpose. Such news may have some value to newspapers published in cities outside the locality of the occurrence. I assume that if two publishers agreed that each should supply a transcript of all reports he received to the other, and conditioned their agreement that neither would abuse the privilege accorded, by giving away or selling what was furnished under the joint arrangement, there could be no objection under the Sherman Act. I had assumed, although the opinion appears to hold otherwise, that such an arrangement would not be obnoxious to the Sherman Act because many, rather than few, joined in it. I think that the situation would be no different if a machinery were created to facilitate the exchange of the news procured by each of the participants such as a partnership, an unincorporated association, or a non-profit corporation.
I assume it cannot be questioned that two or more persons desirous of obtaining news may agree to employ a single reporter, or a staff of reporters, to furnish them news, and agree amongst themselves that, as they share the expense involved, they themselves will use the fruit of *31the service and will not give it away or sell it. Although the procedure has obvious advantages, and is in itself innocent, I do not know, from the opinion of the court, whether it would be held that the inevitable or necessary operation, or necessary consequence, of such an arrangement is to restrain competition in trade or commerce and that it is, consequently, illegal.1 Many expressions in the opinion seem to recognize that all AP does is to keep for its members that which, at joint expense, its members and employees have produced, — its reports of world events. Thus it is said that nonmembers are denied access to AP news, not, be it observed, to news. Again it is said that the by-laws “block all newspaper nonmembers from any opportunity to buy news from AP or any of its publisher members”; again that “the erection of obstacles to the acquisition of membership . . . can make it difficult, if not impossible, for nonmembers to get any of the news furnished by AP . . .” If these expressions stood alone as the factual basis of decision we should know that the court is condemning a joint enterprise for the production of something — here, news copy — which those who produce it intend to use for their exclusive benefit. But it is impossible to deduce from the opinion that this is the ratio of decision.
I do not understand that the court’s decision is pitched on the fact that AP is a membership corporation. The same result could be attained by resort to a multi-party contract, to a partnership, or to an unincorporated association. The choice of the form of the cooperative *32enterprise does not affect the nature of the problem presented.2
AP was created to accomplish on a mutual, nonprofit, basis the two objects mentioned. Its purpose is stated by its charter as “the collection and interchange, with greater economy and efficiency, of information and intelligence for publication in the newspapers” of its members. The organization started on a comparatively modest basis, to facilitate exchange of news reports amongst its members. It has grown into a cooperatively maintained news reporting agency having, in addition, its own reporters and agencies for the collection, arrangement, editing, and transmission to its members, of news, gathered by its employees, and those of others with whom it contracts.
The question is whether the Sherman Act precludes such a cooperative arrangement and renders those who participate liable to furnish news copy, on equal terms, to all newspapers which desire it, as the court below has held. If so, it must be because the joint arrangement constitutes a contract, combination or conspiracy in restraint of trade, or a monopolization, or an attempt or combination or conspiracy to monopolize part or all of some branch of interstate or international trade or commerce, or is a public utility subject to regulation. If AP’s activities fall within the denunciation of the statute it must be because the members (1) have combined with the purpose to restrain trade by destroying competition; or (2), even though their intent was innocent, have set up a combination which either (a) tends unreasonably to restrain, or (b) has in fact resulted, in undue and unreasonable restraint of free competition in trade or commerce; or (3) intended and attempted to monopolize a part or all of a branch of trade; *33or (4) have created an organization of such proportions that in fact it has such a monopoly; or (5) have created an agency which the Sherman Act renders a public utility subject to regulation notwithstanding the guarantees of the First Amendment of the Constitution.
I am unable to determine on which of such possible grounds the judgment of illegality is rested. The court’s opinion blends and mingles statements of fact, inferences and conclusions, and quotations from prior opinions wrested from their setting and context, in such fashion that I find it impossible to deduce more than that orderly analysis and discussion of facts relevant to any one of the possible methods of violation of the Sherman Act is avoided, in the view that separate consideration would disclose a lack of support for any finding of specific wrongdoing. But the general principle that nothing added to nothing will not add up to something holds true in this case. It is a tedious task to separate the generalities thus mingled in the opinion, but I can only essay it by discussing one aspect of the case at a time.
In limine, it should be remembered that newspaper proprietors who are members of AP are not, as publishers, in the trade of buying or selling news. Their business is the publishing of newspapers. In this business they print inter alia news, editorial comment, special articles, photographs, and advertisements. It has been held that a joint effort to obtain advertising to be published in all the papers parties to the arrangement, at special rates, is not a violation of the Sherman Act.3 It has been repeatedly held by this court that the collection of information on behalf of the membership of an unincorporated association, and the furnishing of that information for pay to such persons as the association decides shall share it, is not a violation of *34the Sherman Act.4 I think this is not because the exclusive right to use information or news copy obtained differs somewhat from property rights in tiles or lumber or pipe or women’s fashions or motion-picture film. I think it is because information gathered as the result of effort, or of compensation paid the gatherer, is protected as is property, until published; and that unauthorized publication by another is a wrong redressible in the same way as unauthorized interference with one’s rights in tangible property. In the very case of AP, this court has so held,5 as has the Attorney General of the United States.6 As the Attorney General has pointed out, this proposition is subject to the qualification that there must be no purpose to destroy competition or to monopolize, but with these matters I shall deal hereafter.
First. Are the members of AP acting together with the purpose of destroying competition? I have not discovered any allegation in the complaint to that effect. The court below has not made any such finding. They deny any such purpose or intent and yet, as I read passages in the court’s opinion, it is now found, on this summary judgment record, without a trial, that they are, and have been, actuated by such an intent. The opinion states: “An *35agreement or combination to follow a course of conduct which will necessarily restrain or monopolize a part of trade or commerce may violate the Sherman Act, whether it be ‘wholly nascent or abortive on the one hand, or successful on the other.’ ” I take this statement as suggesting the pleadings and proof disclose, without contradiction, that AP and its members agreed or combined to restrain trade. There is no such allegation in the complaint, and there is not, and cannot be, any finding on this record to support the conclusion. The cases cited in the opinion of agreements to boycott or to drive competitors out of business, or to compel merchants to deal only with members of a group, are, as will appear, inapposite to the case at bar. The defendants say that they merely keep for their own members’ use that which their own members’ activity and expenditure has produced. We must not confuse the intent of the members with the size of their organization. These two matters seem to be inextricably blended in the court’s treatment of the case, but they differ in their nature and as a basis for decision.
But, it may be urged, intent is to be gathered from conduct, and those whose actions have in fact unduly restrained trade, will not be heard to deny the purpose to accomplish the result of their conduct. This is sound doctrine, and it leads to an inquiry as to the actual imposition of prohibited restraints.
Second. Has the plan, and have the operations of AP, the inevitable consequence of restraining competition between news agencies or newspapers, or have they, and do they now, necessarily tend to, or in fact, unreasonably restrain such competition? On this question the court below made no findings save one of dubious import.
It is worth while to quote the finding to which the opinion of this court refers:
“The growth of news agencies has been fostered to some extent as a result of the restrictions of The Associated *36Press’ services to its own members, but other restrictions imposed by The Associated Press have hampered and impeded the growth of competing news agencies and of newspapers competitive with members of The Associated Press.” (Italics supplied.)
The finding is vague for it fails to specify what is meant by “other restrictions.” The phrase cannot mean the membership restrictions of the by-laws for those are mentioned in the preceding clause. Nor does this court’s opinion furnish, any additional light.
Not only is the finding attacked, as the court’s opinion admits, but, in addition, the record negatives the sweeping assumptions the court indulges respecting the effect of AP’s activities.
The opinion states that the members “have, by concerted arrangements, pooled their power to acquire, to purchase, and to dispose of news reports through the channels of commerce,” and, in addition, have “pooled their economic and news control power and, in exerting that power, have entered into agreements which the District Court found to be ‘plainly designed in the interest of preventing competition.’ ” This sentence is characteristic of the opinion. In the first place, as will later appear, the record presents no question of “purchasing power.” One cannot purchase the events of history; he can employ someone to report them to him. Does the sentence mean that AP has “purchased” all or most of the available reporters in the nation or the world? Secondly, the sentence seems to attribute to AP some sort of monopolization of the newspaper publishing business. And, finally, it seems to attribute to the court below a finding that AP has unduly or unreasonably restrained trade. As will appear, the court below made no such finding and, because it could not do so, sought another ground on which to base its decision. Moreover, the facts assumed are specifically denied by the answer, and contradicted by the proofs.
*37The uncontradicted proofs to which I shall later refer show that nonmember publishers not only have obtained, and now obtain, complete and satisfactory news coverage from other agencies, but have prospered and grown without AP news service.
It is said in the opinion that the by-laws, as obstacles to membership, tend to make it difficult to obtain news furnished by AP or its members and that it is apparent that the exclusive right which AP members have gives many newspapers a competitive advantage over their rivals. But the events of life are open to all who inquire. There is no dearth of those willing to inquire and report those events, for proper compensation. Thus the court must here be holding that if a concern gathers from the air, from the sunlight, or from the waters of the sea, by its effort and ingenuity, something that others have not garnered, it must make the results of its activity open to all, for if it sells to some and not to others the former will have a competitive advantage. The exclusive use of that which is thus obtained always, in a sense, gives a competitive advantage over those less active and enterprising. The opinion seems to mean that no contract, however narrow its effect, however innocent its purpose, which in the least degree restricts competition,7 can survive attack under the Sherman Act; that no such concept as a reasonable restraint, a restraint limited to the legitimate protection of one’s property or business, and limited in space or in time, or affecting a few only of all those engaged in a given trade, is free of illegality. Is not this to reestablish the harsh and sweeping effect attributed to the statute in United States v. Trans-Missowri Freight Association, 166 U. S. 290, and United States v. Joint Traffic Association, 171 U. S. 505, which was abandoned more than thirty years ago, for the view, ever since maintained, that the statute *38merely adopted the common law concept of undue and unreasonable restraints of trade.8 If the court is now to revert to the harsh and mechanical application of the act that every agreement which in any measure restrains trade (notwithstanding the truism that “every agreement concerning trade . . . restrains”9) is illegal, the ruling should be made explicit and not left in the realm of speculation.
The opinion says that the District Court found that the by-laws “contained provisions designed to stifle competition in the newspaper publishing field.” The District Court made no finding and reached no conclusion that AP imposed any restraint which was undue or unreasonable, and the matter quoted in footnotes 6 and 8 of the court’s opinion does not support any such gloss as this court places on what the District Court said in its opinions or its formal findings and conclusions, as a mere reading will demonstrate.
If collateral restraints in agreements for the sale of a business, and others of like sort, permitted and enforced at common law, and heretofore under the Sherman Act10 as well, are now to fall under condemnation, we should know the fact.
The opinion assumes that the competitors of AP suffer from an inability to buy news. It is replete with intima*39tions that the cooperative activities of AP have, in fact, seriously impeded the founding and growth of other news-gathering agencies than AP and its member news-gathering agencies and other newspapers than AP’s member newspapers. They are too many for enumeration, but may be illustrated by the court’s statement that “historically, as well as presently, applicants who would offer competition to old members have a hard road to travel,” and that “a newspaper without AP service is more than likely to be at a competitive disadvantage.”
Tliese conclusions are without support in the record or in the findings of the court below, and are unsupported by any finding by this court based upon the facts of record. This can be demonstrated.
The findings of the District Court, which this court has not modified, criticised, or overruled, established beyond cavil that, despite the fact that AP was early in the field and has grown to great size, many other reporting agencies have been established and grown in the United States, two of which, UP and INS, are now comparable to AP “in size, scope of coverage and efficiency.” Additional agencies which furnish substantial news-reporting services in the nation total between twenty and thirty. Statistics concerning them are not included in the record, but it is evident that some, singly, furnish substantial service, and all, taken together, afford a broad coverage in competition with AP, UP and INS, widely used in the newspaper world. Their past growth, and their opportunity for expansion, contradict the assumption that AP has unreasonably, or in substantial measure, restrained free competition. Rather, its success has stimulated others to enter the field and to compete with it.
The District Court found: “AP does not prevent or hinder nonmember newspapers from obtaining access to domestic and foreign happenings and events.” Newspaper publishers differ as to the comparative value of AP *40and other services; many choose one in preference to the other; some have relinquished one service and acquired the other. Vast newspaper enterprises have grown up which depend on services other than those furnished by AP. These include metropolitan newspapers with circulations running from two hundred thousand to over a million. Some which have not used AP reports have outstripped competitors who were members of AP.
The uncontradicted evidence and the findings of the District Court disclose, amongst others, the following significant facts: In 1942 the total expenditures of AP and its subsidiaries were $12,986,000, those of UP and its affiliates $8,628,000, and those of INS and its affiliates $9,434,000. Thus two competitors, found by the court below to be in every way comparable with AP, together expended over $6,000,000 more in that year than AP. In the same year AP had 1,247 domestic and 5 foreign members, UP had 981 domestic and 391 foreign subscribers to its services, and INS, in 1941, 338 domestic newspaper subscribers and 3 such foreign subscribers. Here again the total subscribers of its two most substantial competitors outnumbered AP’s membership in both the domestic and the foreign field. In the matter of supplying features, news pictures, and news to radio stations, UP and INS would each appear to have at least as many users as AP, although the proofs and the findings do not afford an accurate measure of comparison.
Many of the other agencies, as well as UP and INS, make contracts with their subscribers for the exclusive use of their material in the subscriber’s area and field. Both UP and INS make what are known as “asset value” contracts with their subscribers, under the terms of which any newspaper in the same area and field must pay to the existing subscriber the asset value of that subscriber’s contract in order to obtain the service. Thus all these agencies recognize that the exclusive right to publish the *41news furnished their members or subscribers is valuable. Neither as respects AP, nor any of the other agencies, is there a finding or evidence that such provisions work any hindrance or restraint of competition as between agencies or newspapers.
As respects competition between newspapers which are members of AP and others, it is found that newspapers of large circulation in large municipalities, as well as those of medium and small circulation, have thriven and grown without AP service. The court below said: “Upon this motion we must take it as in dispute whether the general opinion in the calling is that the service of UP is better than that of AP, or vice versa.” Newspapers have given up AP service for that of its competitors. Many, in varying localities and fields, not only belong to AP but patronize one or more of the other services, including UP and INS. Some of the largest and most powerful newspapers in the nation have grown to be such without AP service; not an instance is cited where a proposed newspaper was unable to start, or has been compelled to suspend, publication for lack of it. The record contradicts the assertion in the court’s opinion that the proof demonstrates “the net effect is seriously to limit the opportunity of any new paper to enter these cities.” No finding in these terms was made by the District Court. A great bulk of the material tendered by the defendants runs counter to the conclusion; and certainly, in a summary judgment proceeding, to draw such a conclusion from the averments pro and con of the pleadings and affidavits is to ignore what this court has said is permissible in such a proceeding.
The court below has found that, “at the present time, access to the news reports of one or more of AP, UP, or INS is essential to the successful conduct of any substantial newspaper serving the general reading public.” (Italics supplied.) It is true also that the District Court found, referring to these three agencies, that “of the three news *42agencies . . . AP ranks in the forefront in public reputation and esteem,” whatever this may mean. If it means that it is thought the best of the three, this would not seem to advance the argument. If it means that AP is the largest of the three in expenditures, this also is true but irrelevant. Whatever the significance of the finding, it certainly is not a finding that AP has restricted or limited competition either between news agencies or newspapers.
In another aspect of the issue of restraint, the opinion ignores important facts. While it correctly states that, in the daily morning field, AP embraces 81% in number and 96% in circulation, it fails to state that UP serves such newspapers representing 40% in number and 64% in circulation. Again, in respect of the daily evening field, whereas AP members represent 59% in number and 77% in circulation, UP accounts for 45% in number and 65% in circulation. It will be seen that there is duplication because many newspapers take more than one of the existing services. Thus, as of 1941, of the 373 domestic morning English-language dailies, — with a total circulation of 15,849,132, — 152, with a total circulation of 10,701,498, were subscribers of UP, and 55, with a total circulation of 4,149,929, were subscribers of INS; and, of the 1,480 domestic daily evening English-language newspapers, — with a total circulation of 19,616,674,- — -664, with a total circulation of 16,781,020, were subscribers of UP, and 206, with a total circulation of 8,608,180, were subscribers of INS.
The record indicates that, in the large, the events reported by the leading agencies are the same; the differences between the reports being in the way they are written. Inability to peruse an AP report, therefore, does not mean that the reader fails to obtain knowledge of what is happening, but of a particular reporter’s account of the event.
Finally, the record contains affidavits which must, on the motion for summary judgment, be taken as true, of *43twenty-three persons who are in the newspaper business. These are too lengthy to quote. In general the testimony was to this effect: Ten said the UP service was adequate and complete; thirteen said that AP service was not necessary to the success of a newspaper; one said that a newspaper was at no competitive disadvantage through lack of AP service; and five testified their papers, to which AP membership was open, elected to use competing services. As of September 1941 more than 600 domestic newspapers which were subscribers of UP were not members of AP. The fact is that AP does not attempt to restrain its members from taking services from other agencies. It is little wonder that the District Court refrained from finding that AP had unduly or unreasonably restrained competition between news agencies or newspapers.
I conclude, therefore, that there is no justification for a holding that the operations of AP must inevitably result, or that its activities have in fact resulted, in any undue and unreasonable restraint of free competition in any branch of trade or commerce.
Third. Have AP and its members intended, or attempted, to monopolize a branch of trade? As I have already pointed out, the events happening in the world are as open to all men as the air or the sunlight. The only agency required to report them is a human being who will inquire. Surely the supply of reporters is not less difficult to monopolize than the events to be reported.
The court below reached conclusions as to monopoly which were required by the record:
“AP does not monopolize or dominate the furnishing of news reports, news pictures, or features to newspapers in the United States.
“AP does not monopolize or dominate access to the original sources of news.
“AP does not monopolize or dominate transmission facilities for the gathering or distribution of news reports, news pictures, or features.”
*44If the opinion of this court means to suggest that while the news can be gathered by anyone, because no one has, or can have, a monopoly of the events of history, AP monopolizes the services of those who report news which its energies and efforts have employed and trained (which is not shown), then, I submit, we have a new concept of monopolization, namely, that where some person, out of materials open to all, creates his own product, by hiring persons to produce it, that person may not determine to whom he will sell and from whom he will withhold the product. Such a concept can only be justified on the public utility theory upon which the court below proceeded, of which I shall say something later.
In spite of the quoted conclusions of the District Court (and no facts are cited in this court’s opinion which negative their accuracy), I must take it that the court intends to hold that the pleadings and proofs disclose, without question, an intent or attempt to monopolize.
I have quoted the finding made below that AP does not prevent or hinder nonmember newspapers from obtaining access to domestic or foreign news. The facts and figures I have cited above indicate no intent or attempt to absorb the entire field of news gathering and reporting, to exclude all others from the field, or to take over the entire field, to the end that no newspaper or combination of newspapers can obtain reports of the news. Paragraph 3 of the complaint charges an attempt to monopolize a part of trade and commerce and a combination and conspiracy to monopolize the same. The answer specifically denies the allegation. The amazing growth of competing agencies, and their size, would seem to indicate that any such supposed intent or attempt had been ill served by the operations of AP. At all events, there is no room in a summary judgment proceeding, based on the facts of record, for any such finding.
Fourth. Have the defendants created an organization of such proportions as in fact to monopolize any part of trade *45or commerce? In answering the inquiry I need do little more than refer to the facts already summarized. The opinion seeks support for a holding of monopolization, by referring to a finding of the District Court, in these words:
“AP is a vast, intricately reticulated organization, the largest of its kind, gathering news from all over the world, the chief single source of news for the American press, universally agreed to be of great consequence.”
It may be conceded that the descriptive adjectives are not ill-chosen, but the record would support a like finding with reference to UP and INS, save for the phrases “largest of its kind” and “chief.” And, upon a full trial, it may well be that evidence produced would induce significant findings with respect to size and organization of other existing news agencies. Until now it has been unquestioned that size alone does not bring a business organization within the condemnation of the Sherman Act.11 And any consideration as to size would equally hold true whether the defendant is a single corporation dealing with many persons in trade or commerce or an instrumentality set up by a number of business enterprises to serve them all on a cooperative basis. The argument of the Government seems to assume that UP and INS, independent corporations, in spite of their size, are not monopolies or attempts to monopolize because they deal at arm’s length with their patrons whereas there is something sinister about AP because it deals on the same terms with its own members. I cannot perceive how, if AP falls within the denunciation of the statute, UP and INS do not equally, and by the same test. No significant feature of the practices of the one is absent in those of the others.
Fifth. The court’s opinion, under the guise of enforcing the Sherman Act, in fact renders AP a public utility sub*46ject to the duty to serve all on equal terms. This must be so, despite the disavowal of any such ground of decision. The District Court made this public utility theory the sole basis of decision, because it was unable to find support for a conclusion that AP either intended or attempted to, or in fact did, unreasonably restrain trade or monopolize or attempt to monopolize all or any part of any branch of trade within the decisions of this court interpreting and applying the Sherman Act. Realizing the lack of support for any other, the Government urges that the District Court’s ground of decision is sound and that this court should adopt it. Judge Swan, in his dissent below, has sufficiently disposed of this point,12 and I refer to his opinion, in which I concur, without quoting or paraphrasing it.
Suffice it to say that it is a novel application of the Sherman Act to treat it as legislation converting an organization, which neither restrains trade nor monopolizes it, nor holds itself out to serve the public generally, into a public utility because it furnishes a new sort of illumination — literary as contrasted with physical — by pronouncing a fiat that the interest of consumers — the reading public — not that of competing news agencies or newspaper publishers — requires equal service to all newspapers on the part of AP and that a court of equity, in the guise of an injunction, shall write the requisite regulatory statute. This is government-by-injunction with a vengeance.
Moreover it is to make a new statute by court decision. The Sherman Act does not deal with public utilities as such. They may violate the Act, as may persons engaged in private business. But that Act never was intended and has never before been thought to require a private corporation, not holding itself out to serve the public, whose operations neither were intended to nor tended unreasonably to restrain or monopolize trade, to fulfill the duty *47incident to a public calling, of serving all applicants on equal terms.
For myself, I prefer to entrust regulatory legislation of commerce to the elected representatives of the people, instead of freezing it in the decrees of courts less responsive to the public will. I still believe that “the courts are without authority either to declare such policy, or, when it is declared by the legislature, to override it.”13
But more, the courts are unfit instruments to make and implement such policy. A wise judge has said in a case brought by AP to redress the alleged wrong of INS in “pirating” AP’s news:14
“Courts are ill-equipped to make the investigations which should precede a determination of the limitations which should be set upon any property right in news or of the circumstances under which news gathered by a private agency should be deemed affected with a public interest. Courts would be powerless to prescribe the detailed regulations essential to full enjoyment of the rights conferred or to introduce the machinery required for enforcement of such regulations. Considerations such as these should lead us to decline to establish a new rule of law in the effort to redress a newly-disclosed wrong, although the propriety of some remedy appears to be clear.”
The considerations which led to the conclusion are persuasively stated in the preceding pages of the cited opinion.
The opinion asserts that, whatever the court below has said, this court does not adopt its reasons for the decree entered, but sustains its action upon the basis of restraint and monopoly violative of a prohibitory law. I think, however, this is too superficial a conclusion. The fact remains, as the court below concedes, that the role essayed “is ordinarily ‘legislative.’ ”15
*48From now on, AP is to operate under the tutelage of the court. It is ordered to submit for approval a revision of its by-laws, and, unless the court approves the changes, it is to be restrained from contracting with its members that they shall not disclose the news it furnishes, and from continuing its existing contract relations with a Canadian news agency, both of which are held, in and of themselves and apart from the alleged illegalities of the by-laws, innocent and legal. However the by-laws may be amended, and whatever judicial blessing may be given the new text, it is certain that every refusal to deal with any newspaper will evoke a fresh exercise of the judicial guardianship. Lawful practices may be threatened with injunction, as they are in the present decree, as a lever to compel obedience in some respect thought important by the court.
The decree may well result not in freer competition but in a monopoly in AP or UP, or in some resulting agency, and thus force full and complete regimentation of all news service to the people of the nation. The decree here approved may well be, and I think threatens to be, but a first step in the shackling of the press, which will subvert the constitutional freedom to print or to withhold, to print as and how one’s reason or one’s interest dictates. When that time comes, the state will be supreme and freedom of the state will have superseded freedom of the individual to print, being responsible before the law for abuse of the high privilege.
It is not protecting a freedom, but confining it, to prescribe where and how and under what conditions one must impart the literary product of his thought and research. This is fettering the press, not striking off its chains.
The existing situation with respect to radio points the moral of what I have said. In that field Congress has imposed regulation because, in contrast to the press, the physical channels of communication are limited, and chaos would result from unrestrained and unregulated use of *49such channels. But in imposing regulation, Congress has refrained from any restraint on ownership of news or information or the right to use it. And any regulation of this major source of information, in the light of the constitutional guarantee of free speech, should be closely and jealously examined by the courts.
The court goes far afield in citing Associated Press v. Labor Board, 301 U. S. 103, and Indiana Farmer’s Guide Co. v. Prairie Farmer Co., 293 U. S. 268, as justifying the decree. Apart from the fact that the policy and the implementing regulation involved in the Associated Press case was that declared by Congress, not court-made, it is plain from the opinion that the freedom to publish or to refrain from publishing, the control of its news by AP and the entire conduct of its business, save only its duty to deal with employees as a class, was untouched.16 In the Farmer’s Guide case all that was decided was that the newspapers there in question were engaging in interstate commerce and that newspapers, like other business enterprises, can violate the Sherman Act by unreasonably restraining or monopolizing commerce in more than one state. I should be the last to deny the correctness of these propositions. But, as I have already said, when that case came to be retried, it was found that the concert of action in joint solicitation of advertising and granting a reduced rate for it if placed in all the journals in the combination violated none of the provisions of the Act.17
The Chief Justice joins in this opinion.

 The argument drawn from tbe Congressional exemption of farmers’ cooperatives from the sweep of the Sherman Act falls short, since such cooperatives often are not mere joint purchasing agencies of things needed and used by the members, but are marketing agencies which may be thought to restrain commerce and tend toward monopoly. It was to safeguard the latter sort of activity that the exemption was granted.

 “A cooperative enterprise, otherwise free from objection, which carries with it no monopolistic menace, is not to be condemned as an undue restraint . . .” Appalachian Coals v. United States, 288 U. S. 344, 373-4.

 Prairie Farmer Co. v. Indiana Farmer’s Guide Co., 88 F. 2d 979, cert. denied 301 U. S. 696; rehearing denied 302 U. S. 773.

 Board of Trade v. Christie Grain & Stock Co., 198 U. S. 236, 251, 252; Hunt v. New York Cotton Exchange, 205 U. S. 322, 333; United States v. New York Coffee Exchange, 263 U. S. 611, 619; Moore v. New York Cotton Exchange, 270 U. S. 593, 604, 607.

 International News Service v. Associated Press, 248 U. S. 215.

 “ . . . it is no violation of the Anti-Trust Act for a group of newspapers to form an association to collect and distribute news for their common benefit, and to that end to agree to furnish the news collected by them only to each other or to the Association; provided that no attempt is made to prevent the members from purchasing or otherwise obtaining news from rival agencies. And if that is true the corollary must be true, namely, that newspapers desiring to form and maintain such an organization may determine who shall be and who shall not be their associates.” (Letter of Attorney General Gregory of March 12, 1915.)

 It was only in this limited sense that the court below found that the by-laws limited competition.

 Standard Oil Co. v. United States, 221 U. S. 1, 59-62; United States v. American Tobacco Co., 221 U. S. 106, 178-179; United States v. Terminal R. Assn., 224 U. S. 383, 394-395; Chicago Board of Trade v. United States, 246 U. S. 231, 238-239; Maple Flooring Mfrs. Assn. v. United States, 268 U. S. 563, 582; Appalachian Coals v. United States, 288 U. S. 344, 359-361, 375, 376-7; Sugar Institute v. United States, 297 U. S. 553, 597-600; Interstate Circuit v. United States, 306 U. S. 208, 230-232.

 Chicago Board of Trade v. United States, supra, 238; Appalachian Coals v. United States, supra, 361.

 Oregon Steam Navigation Co. v. Winsor, 20 Wall. 64; Cincinnati Packet Co. v. Bay, 200 U. S. 179, 184, 185; United States v. General Electric Co., 272 U. S. 476; United States v. Bausch & Lomb Co., 321 U. S. 707.

 United States v. United States Steel Corp., 251 U. S. 417, 451; United States v. International Harvester Co., 274 U. S. 693, 707.

 52 F. Supp. 375.

 Nebbia v. New York, 291 U. S. 502, 537.

 International News Service v. Associated Press, 248 U. S. 215, 267.

 52 F. Supp. 370.

 See 301 U. S. 132-3.

 Supra, note 3.