In the 1912 case of Degge v. Hitchcock, Postmaster General, the United States Supreme Court dealt with a dispute over mail delivery rights. The plaintiff, Degge, was an owner of a patent for a certain type of mailbox and had entered into contracts with rural homeowners to use his patented boxes for their mail deliveries. However, the Postmaster General issued an order that all rural carriers were to deliver only to government-approved standard rural mailboxes or else face dismissal from service. This effectively nullified Degge's contracts as his patented boxes did not meet these standards. Degge sued on grounds that this order violated his Fifth Amendment rights by depriving him of property without due process and taking private property for public use without just compensation. The court ruled against him stating that while he may have had exclusive right to manufacture and sell his invention under patent law; it did not guarantee any right in having postal officials compelled to utilize them in official duties nor protect him from changes in regulations affecting its utility.

In the dissenting opinion for Degge v. Hitchcock, it was argued that the Postmaster General did not have the authority to exclude mail from delivery based on its content without a court order. The dissenting justices believed that this power could potentially be abused and infringe upon freedom of speech rights protected by the First Amendment. They also expressed concern about potential violations of due process rights, as individuals or organizations whose mail was excluded would not have an opportunity to challenge this decision in court before their communications were disrupted. Furthermore, they pointed out that Congress had never explicitly granted such broad powers to the Postmaster General and questioned whether it even had constitutional authority to do so.