United States et al. v. Southwestern Cable Co. et al.

Decided June 10, 1968. John Marshall Harlan delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 363 · 392 U.S. 157 (1968) · Cited 450 times

We don’t yet publish a summary of this opinion — read the official text below for the Court’s holding and reasoning.

How the Justices voted

Decided 7–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• American Trucking Assns., Inc. v. United States · 344 U.S. 298 (1953)
• Permian Basin Area Rate Cases · 390 U.S. 747 (1968)
• National Broadcasting Co. v. United States · 319 U.S. 190 (1943)
• Federal Communications Commission v. Pottsville Broadcasting Co. · 309 U.S. 134 (1940)
• Wong Yang Sung v. McGrath · 339 U.S. 33 (1950)
• Haynes v. United States · 390 U.S. 85 (1968)
• United States v. Price · 361 U.S. 304 (1960)
• Federal Radio Comm'n v. Nelson Brothers Bond & Mortgage Co. (Station WIBO) · 289 U.S. 266 (1933)
• Rainwater v. United States · 356 U.S. 590 (1958)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• United States v. Midwest Video Corp. · 406 U.S. 649 (1972)
• Federal Communications Commission v. Midwest Video Corp. · 440 U.S. 689 (1979)
• Food & Drug Administration v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. · 529 U.S. 120 (2000)
• Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission · 512 U.S. 622 (1994)
• Capital Cities Cable, Inc. v. Crisp · 467 U.S. 691 (1984)
• Fidelity Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n v. De La Cuesta · 458 U.S. 141 (1982)
• United States v. X-Citement Video, Inc. · 513 U.S. 64 (1994)
• MCI Telecommunications Corp. v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co. · 512 U.S. 218 (1994)
• Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission · 520 U.S. 180 (1997)
• Federal Communications Commission v. National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting · 436 U.S. 775 (1978)
• Community Communications Co. v. City of Boulder · 455 U.S. 40 (1982)
• National Cable Television Assn., Inc. v. United States · 415 U.S. 336 (1974)
• Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio v. Betts · 492 U.S. 158 (1989)
• Denver Area Educational Telecommunications Consortium, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission · 518 U.S. 727 (1996)
• Mattz v. Arnett · 412 U.S. 481 (1973)
• City of New York v. Federal Communications Commission · 486 U.S. 57 (1988)
• West v. Gibson · 527 U.S. 212 (1999)
• United States v. Clark · 445 U.S. 23 (1980)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: the U.S. Reports via govinfo.gov; authoring Justice and vote lineup from the Supreme Court Database (Washington University). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).