The United States Post Office Department today revealed that a huge volume of anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic hate literature is being mailed during the election campaign.
But Herbert Warburton, general counsel of the Department, said the two laws that might conceivably restrict such mailings were limited in scope. One clause makes it against the law to mail anything that would “incite the reader to arson, murder or assassination.” The other makes it unlawful to mail matter defaming identifiable individuals on envelope surfaces or post cards. This law does not apply to covered material.
Judicial interpretation of these laws makes it impossible to apply them to “the mailing of literature which speak disparagingly of a group of people or of a religious or political belief,” said Mr. Warburton. He added that the Post Office Department has taken no stand on whether tighter laws should be written.
Mr. Warburton pointed out that it was a widely held legal view that any law that would outlaw hate literature would violate the First Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing freedom of speech. The mailings have mainly involved attacks on Senator John F. Kennedy, Democratic Presidential nominee, and have reflected considerable anti-Semitic and anti-Negro propaganda in addition to anti-Catholicism.
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