Incident
United States Postmaster General Burleson strips the Milwaukee Leader of its mailing rate
Postmaster General Albert Burleson used the wartime Espionage Act to strip the Milwaukee Leader, a socialist daily, of its low-cost second-class mailing rate, cutting off its main channel to readers. The Supreme Court upheld the revocation in 1921, over two dissents warning it amounted to press controls.123
What happened
During the First World War, Postmaster General Albert Burleson's Post Office found the Milwaukee Leader, a socialist daily edited under publisher Victor Berger's direction, in violation of the Espionage Act for articles opposing the war, and revoked its second-class mailing permit, the low postal rate newspapers depended on to reach subscribers nationwide. The paper's publishing company asked the Supreme Court of the United States, the country's highest court, to order the Post Office to restore the rate, arguing the denial violated the Constitution's protections for speech and due process. In United States ex rel. Milwaukee Social Democratic Publishing Co. v. Burleson, decided March 7, 1921, the Court upheld Burleson's action by a 7 to 2 vote. Justices Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis Brandeis dissented, warning that letting a postmaster judge a paper's loyalty amounted to a form of press controls over the mail.123
What reason was given
Stated justificationThe Post Office found the Leader's wartime articles violated the Espionage Act, and the majority opinion held that the Constitution was not a shield for those who used its privileges to work against the government.1
What changed for reporting
The Leader lost the inexpensive second-class postal rate other newspapers used to reach subscribers across the country, forcing it onto costlier first-class postage and cutting its circulation.2
Timeline
1917
Who acted
| Name | Role in this incident | Office at the time |
|---|---|---|
| Albert S. Burleson | enforced | United States Postmaster General |
| Woodrow Wilson | other | President of the United States |
Outlets and journalists
| Name | Kind | Relation |
|---|---|---|
| The Milwaukee Leader | outlet | affected |
Sources
- United States ex rel. Milwaukee Social Democratic Publishing Co. v. Burleson archived copy
- Espionage Act of 1917 archived copy
Claims and evidence
Each numbered claim quotes the source it rests on.
- The Supreme Court's majority held that the Constitution was adopted to preserve the government, not to protect those who used its privileges to try to destroy it, in upholding Burleson's revocation of the paper's mailing rate.
The Constitution was adopted to preserve our Government, not to serve as a protecting screen for those who while claiming its privileges seek to destroy it.
United States ex rel. Milwaukee Social Democratic Publishing Co. v. Burleson archived copy, The First Amendment Encyclopedia, Middle Tennessee State University.Claim 117, checked 2026-09-22. - Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes dissented, warning the ruling treated access to the mail, nearly as essential to free speech as the ability to speak, as something a postmaster could take away.
The use of the mails is almost as much a part of free speech as the right to use our tongues.
United States ex rel. Milwaukee Social Democratic Publishing Co. v. Burleson archived copy, The First Amendment Encyclopedia, Middle Tennessee State University.Claim 118, checked 2026-09-22. - Justice Louis Brandeis dissented that the majority's approach would let the Post Office run what amounted to a system of censorship.
effective censorship
United States ex rel. Milwaukee Social Democratic Publishing Co. v. Burleson archived copy, The First Amendment Encyclopedia, Middle Tennessee State University.Claim 119, checked 2026-09-22.