Times-picayune Publishing Co. et al. v. United States (345 U.S. 594)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 25, 1953 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 345 U.S. 594 · 73 S. Ct. 872
- Docket
- No. 374
- Argued
- March 11, 1953
- Decided
- May 25, 1953
- Term
- October Term 1952
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Clark
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Clark (wrote), Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed
- Dissenting
- Justice Minton, Justice Burton (wrote), Justice Douglas, Justice Black
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Clark delivered the opinion of the Court. At issue is the legality under the Sherman Act of the Times-Picayune Publishing Company’s contracts for the sale of newspaper classified and general display advertising space. The Company in New Orleans owns and publishes the morning Times-Picayune and the evening States. Buyers of space for general display and classified advertising in its publications may purchase only combined insertions appearing in both the morning and evening papers, and not in either separately. The United States filed a civil suit under the Sherman Act, challenging these “unit” or “forced combination” contracts as unreasonable restraints of interstate trade, banned by § 1, and as tools in an attempt to monopolize a segment of interstate commerce, in violation of § 2. After intensive trial of the facts, the District Court found violations of both sections of the law and entered a decree enjoining the Publishing Company’s use of these unit contracts and related arrangements for the marketing of advertising space. In No. 374, the Publishing Company appeals the merits of the District Court’s holding under the Sherman Act; the Government, in No. 375, seeks relief broader than the District Court’s decree. Both appeals come directly here under the Expediting Act. Testimony in a voluminous record retraces a history of over twenty-five years. Prior to 1933,…
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