Associated Press v. United States
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''Associated Press v. United States'', 326 U.S. 1 (1945), was a
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 involve a point o ...
case on U.S. antitrust law.


Facts

The
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
(AP) had prohibited member
newspapers A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports ...
from selling or providing news (whether that news was supplied by the AP, or was authored by the member newspaper - called "spontaneous" news) to nonmember organizations as well as making it very difficult for nonmember newspapers to join the AP. Originally there were three separate cases (''Associated Press et al. v. U.S.'', ''
Tribune Company Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...
et al. v. U.S.'' and ''U.S. v. Associated Press et al.'') that were joined into one when heard at the Supreme Court.


Judgment

The Supreme Court held that Associated Press had violated the Sherman Act. The bylaws of AP at that time, as written, constituted restraint of trade. The fact that AP had not achieved a complete monopoly was irrelevant. The
First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
did not excuse newspapers from violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. News, traded between states, counts as
interstate commerce The Commerce Clause describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution ( Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and amo ...
, and thus makes the issue relevant for the Sherman Antitrust Act. Finally, Freedom of the press from governmental interference under the First Amendment does not sanction repression of that freedom by private interests (326 U.S. 20).


See also

*
US antitrust law In the United States, antitrust law is a collection of mostly federal laws that regulate the conduct and organization of businesses to promote competition and prevent unjustified monopolies. The three main U.S. antitrust statutes are the Sherma ...
* ''
International News Service v. Associated Press ''International News Service v. Associated Press'', 248 U.S. 215 (1918), also known as ''INS v. AP'' or simply the ''INS'' case, is a 1918 decision of the United States Supreme Court that enunciated the misappropriation doctrine of federal intellec ...
'' (1918) - a copyright Supreme Court case


Notes


External links

* United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Stone Court United States antitrust case law 1945 in United States case law Associated Press {{SCOTUS-case-stub