In the 1912 case of Lewis Publishing Company v. Wyman, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of defendant, Secretary of State Frederick E. Wyman, who had refused to mail certain publications by plaintiff Lewis Publishing Company at second-class postage rates due to their advertising content. The court upheld that under the Postal Laws and Regulations Act (1902), a publication must be primarily designed for public information or free discussion on topics such as politics, science or art to qualify for these rates; it should not be mainly intended for advertising purposes. The court found that two-thirds of each issue published by Lewis was dedicated to advertisements which were unrelated to its editorial content and thus did not meet this requirement.

In the dissenting opinion for Lewis Publishing Company v. Wyman, Justice Holmes argued that the First Amendment rights of a newspaper publisher were violated when they were denied second-class mailing privileges due to their political content. He contended that it was not within the Postmaster General's jurisdiction to determine what constituted legitimate news and thus decide who could receive postal benefits based on such determinations. This, he believed, amounted to an unconstitutional restriction on freedom of speech and press as it allowed government interference in editorial decisions which should be left solely up to publishers themselves without fear of penalty or censorship from authorities.