Associated Students for University of California at Riverside v. Attorney General

OPINION AND ORDER

This is an action for declaratory and injunctive relief and relief in the nature of mandamus. The plaintiffs seek to invalidate (a) those portions of 18 U.S.C. § 1461 which provide that information concerning abortion is “nonmailable matter” and make the knowing use of the mails for such matter a crime, and (b) the provisions of § 1461 which, together with 39 U.S.C. § 3001 (e), make the mailing of unsolicited advertisements of birth control devices a crime. Plaintiffs contend that, both on their face and as applied to plaintiffs, these portions of 18 U.S.C. § 1461 violate the First Amendment, in that they create an unconstitutional system of prior restraint upon protected speech and are unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. We hold that at least one class of plaintiffs has standing to maintain this action and in part grant the relief requested.

Since the action seeks an “injunction restraining the enforcement, operation or execution of a[n] Act of Congress for repugnance to the Constitution,” a three-judge district court was convened under 28 U.S.C. § 2282 to decide this case pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2284 .

The action was brought by the named individual…