Haldeman-Julius Pub. Co. v. Kiely
Haldeman-Julius Pub. Co. v. Kiely
Opinion of the Court
The cotnplainamt is a corporation engaged in publishing at Girard, Kan., a newspaper entitled “The American Freeman.” Two of its issues, dated June 25 and July 15, respectively, were excluded from the mails by the postmaster at Girard. Shortly thereafter, on July 22, 1932, the American Civil Liberties Union presented to the defendant, the postmaster at New York City, one copy of each of these issues. He refused to accept them for transmission through the mails, and thereupon this suit was brought to enjoin the defendant from denying to the complainant the privilege of the mails with respect to said issues of its newspaper.
This is obviously a moot ease, concocted for the purpose of bringing suit in the Southern district of New York rather than in the appropriate district of Kansas, where the injury to the complainant, if any, occurred. It is wholly consistent with the bill, and not improbable in fact, that the American Civil Liberties Union of its own accord and .without the complainant’s knowledge offered for mailing the copies which the defendant refused. The bringing of the suit does indeed show that the complainant has now adopted that act, but that is not enough. To obtain an injunction, the complainant must show that the defendant is threatening to do a wrong which will cause him irreparable injury. If a stranger to a newspaper, wishing to raise the question of its mailab-ility, gets it refused, the publisher of the paper suffers nothing thereby. His use of the mails has not been denied by that refusal. He must allege an injury to himself, and be does not do so by showing that an outsider has been denied the use of the mails for a copy which the publisher has already disposed of by sale or otherwise. The complaint at bar contains no allegation that, the rejected copies were the complainant’s property, or that the American
Reference
- Full Case Name
- HALDEMAN-JULIUS PUB. CO. v. KIELY, Postmaster of City of New York
- Status
- Published