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54 Geo. L. J. 30 (1965-1966)
Freedom of the Mails: A Developing Right

handle is hein.journals/glj54 and id is 56 raw text is: FREEDOM OF THE MAILS: A DEVELOPING RIGHT JAY A. SIGLER* Contending that a freedom of the mails is implicit in the first amendment's freedom of speech guarantee, the author explores various activities of the Post Office Department ,which tend to abridge this freedom. Professor Sigler notes that the postal censorship power is growing more popular qwith Congress, but he voices cautious optimism about an eventual recognition of a freedom of the mails. The recent Supreme Court decision in Lamont v. Postmaster General is largely responsible for this optimism. The United States may give up the Post Office when it sees fit, but while it carries it on the use of the mails is almost as much a part of free speech as the right to use our tongues, and it would take very strong language to convince me that Congress ever intended to give such a practically despotic power to any one man. INTRODUCTION The power of censorship is among the most formidable activities of government and has held the attention of libertarians, moralists and self-styled patriots from Plato to the present. The stirring phrases of Milton's Areopagitica still offer the most convincing asser- tion of the doctrine of prior restraint, but even Milton did not deny the government the power to punish statements after their utterance, nor did he indicate that the government need abstain from interfer- ence with all kinds of utterances.2 Plato emphasized the need of protecting the masses from unpleasant truths and the immoral lies of poets. The motives of the censors and the complaints of the cen- sored have changed little over the ages, but the modes and techniques of censorship have been vastly altered. The states, under the federal system, have long exercised their police power over morality by censoring books, movies, pictures, and *Assistant Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University; B.A., Rutgers Uni- versity; LL.B., Rutgers University School of Law; M.A., Rutgers University; Ph.D., Rutgers University. I United States ex rel. Milwaukee Social Democratic Publishing Co. v. Burleson, 255 U.S. 407, 437 (1921) (Holmes, J., dissenting), quoted approvingly in Lamont v. Post- master General, 381 U.S. 301, 305 (1965). 2 MIroN, PROSE WORKS 103-19 (Fletcher ed. 1834). The authors of mischievous works, said Milton, could be dealt with, after publication, by fire and the executioner.

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