Supreme Court Strikes Down Postal Censorship Law
In Lamont v. Postmaster General, decided on this day, the Supreme Court struck down a federal law that allowed the Post Office to deliver foreign “communist political propaganda” only upon the request of the recipient. The Court unanimously held the law to be an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment.
Corliss Lamont, who had challenged the Post Office restrictions, was a longtime civil libertarian and served for many years on the ACLU Board of Directors.
Lamont founded the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (ECLC) on October 8, 1951, because of his dissatisfaction with the ACLU and its response to the Cold War. The ECLC later became the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, and in 1998 it merged with the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Lamont was denied a passport because of his political views on October 15, 1951.
The Court: “. . . an unconstitutional limitation of his rights under the First Amendment.”
Visit the Corliss Lamont website.
Watch a 1952 interview with Lamont: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBnUXr9HWhM
Learn more about Lamont: Corliss Lamont, Yes to Life: A Memoir (1981)
Learn more about Corliss Lamont here.
Visit the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) web site here