Reading Room Document

Available legal action to prevent importation of the Soviet magazine Sputnik

This opinion assessed the legal options available to prevent importation of Sputnik, an English-language magazine written in the Soviet Union but printed in Finland. The OLC advised that the importation of Sputnik likely did not fall within penal forfeiture laws, agreeing with the State Department and disagreeing with the U.S. Information Agency. The OLC also assessed whether a presidential proclamation barring Sputnik’s importation or assessing additional duties on it would violate trade treaties between the United States and Finland, and considered whether new legislation could be easily passed to prohibit importation of materials outside a formal cultural exchange agreement. In describing the First Amendment concerns that might arise, the OLC noted that both the magazine’s distributors and readers might lodge a First Amendment complaint. Ultimately, the OLC concluded that a constitutional challenge would be unlikely to succeed if the government described the importation controls as “designed primarily to [e]nsure reciprocity in the exchange of ideas” rather than “to prevent or diminish the flow of printed materials into the United States based on its contents.”

May 26, 1967