The Press: Decision in re A.P.

The Government's 14,000-word brief had charged that the Associated Press was a monopoly. A.P.'s 7,000-word answer had denied it. For more than a year a most eminent three-judge Federal Court in Manhattan had studied vast quantities of evidence. Last week it gave its Solomonic decision, in one of the most historic of lawsuits. A.P. had lost. But A.P. and democracy had also won.

Said Judge Learned Hand's majority opinion (Judge Augustus Hand — a cousin —concurring): "We conclude that the present bylaws of A.P. unlawfully restrict the admission of members; and that fur...