The U.S. Supreme Court case City of Lakewood v. Plain Dealer Publishing Co., 1987, centered around the constitutionality of a city ordinance that required annual permits for newspaper distribution boxes on public property and gave the mayor discretion to deny these permits without judicial review. The Plain Dealer Publishing Company challenged this law as an infringement upon their First Amendment rights, arguing it allowed for potential discrimination against certain publications based on content or viewpoint. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the publishing company, stating that such discretionary power could lead to self-censorship by publishers fearful of retaliation from government officials displeased with their content. Therefore, they found the ordinance unconstitutional because it did not provide adequate safeguards against arbitrary denial or censorship.

In the dissenting opinion for City of Lakewood v. Plain Dealer Publishing Co., Justice White, joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices Powell and Scalia, argued that there was no constitutional violation in requiring a newspaper to obtain a permit before placing newsracks on public property. They contended that the First Amendment does not guarantee newspapers an absolute right to place their racks wherever they wish without any regulation or control by local authorities. The majority's decision, according to them, would unduly limit municipalities' ability to manage their own affairs and maintain aesthetic standards within their jurisdictions. Furthermore, they disagreed with the majority's view that this case involved prior restraint on speech; instead asserting it was about reasonable time-place-manner restrictions which are constitutionally permissible if content-neutral.