''Rowan v. Post Office Dept.'', 397 U.S. 728 (1970), is a case in which the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

ruled that an addressee of postal mail has sole, complete, unfettered and unreviewable discretion to decide whether he or she wishes to receive further material from a particular sender, and that the sender does not have a constitutional right to send unwanted material into someone's home. It thus created a quasi-exception to free speech in cases in which a person is held as a "

captive audience Captive audience may refer to: Law * Captive audience meeting, a mandatory meeting used by employers to oppose unionization * A legal concept in: ** '' Rowan v. United States Post Office Department'', 1970, in which the United States Supreme C ...

Eugene Volokh Eugene Volokh (; born Yevhen Volodymyrovych Volokh (); February 29, 1968) is an American legal scholar known for his scholarship in American constitutional law and Libertarianism in the United States, libertarianism as well as his prominent leg ...

,
Freedom of Speech and Workplace Harassment
', 39

UCLA Law Review The ''UCLA Law Review'' is a bimonthly law review established in 1953 and published by students of the UCLA School of Law, where it also sponsors an annual symposium. Originally, UCLA Law proposed in 1950 that either Berkeley and UCLA should p ...

1791 (1992), excerpted with substantial modifications.

Background

While the statute only explicitly applies to "a pandering advertisement which offers for sale matter which the addressee in his sole discretion believes to be erotically arousing or sexually provocative", a lower court had found that § 4009 was constitutional when interpreted to prohibit advertisements similar to those initially mailed to the addressee, and this decision upholds that interpretation. In other words, a recipient may obtain a Prohibitory Order prohibiting mail from a given sender, and the mailing used as the basis for that order need not be erotic or sexually provocative in order to be the basis of prohibiting the sender from sending further mail. The only absolute requirement is that it must be possible to construe the mail as an offer to sell goods or services.

Opinion of the Court

The opinion of the Court was delivered by Justice

Warren Burger Warren Earl Burger (September 17, 1907 – June 25, 1995) was an American attorney who served as the 15th chief justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Burger graduated from the St. Paul College of Law i ...

, and a concurring opinion was filed by Justice William Brennan, joined by William Douglas. The majority concluded that the addressee of postal mail has sole, complete, unfettered and unreviewable discretion to decide whether to receive further material from a particular sender, and a vendor does not have a constitutional right to send unwanted material to an unreceptive addressee.

Subsequent developments

The

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...

's PS Form 1500 still refers to material that the applicant considers "erotically arousing or sexually provocative" even though the court interpreted the statute to apply to any unwanted advertising: "The statute allows the addressee sole, complete, unfettered and unreviewable discretion to decide whether he wishes to receive any further material from a particular sender."

References

*Volokh, Eugene (2008). ''The First Amendment and Related Statutes''. Foundation Press.

Notes

External links