Rowan v. United States Post Office Department/Concurrence Brennan
United States Supreme Court
Rowan v. United States Post Office Department
Argued: Jan. 22, 1970 --- Decided: May 4, 1970
Mr. Justice Brennan, with whom Mr. Justice Douglas joins, concurring.
I join the Court’s opinion but add a few words. I agree that 39 U. S. C. § 4009 (1964 ed., Supp. IV) is constitutional insofar as it permits an addressee to require a mailer to remove his name from its mailing lists and to stop all future mailings to the addressee. As the Court notes, however, subsection (g) of § 4009 also allows an addressee to request the Postmaster General to include in any prohibitory order “the names of any of his minor children who have not attained their nineteenth birthday, and who reside with the addressee.” In light of the broad interpretation that the Court assigns to § 4009, and see ante, at 738, the possibility exists that parents could prevent their children, even if they are 18 years old, from receiving political, religious, or other materials that the parents find offensive. Cf. Tinker v. Des Moines School Dist., 393 U. S. 503 (1969); Ginsberg v. New York, 390 U. S. 629 (1968). In this case, however, there is no particularized attack upon the constitutionality of subsection (g), nor, indeed, is there any indication on this record that under § 4009(g) children in their late teens have been unwillingly deprived of the opportunity to receive materials. In these circumstances, I understand the Court to leave open the question of the right of older children to receive materials through the mail without governmental interference and also the more specific question whether § 4009(g) may constitutionally be applied with respect to all materials and to all children under 19.