May the government prohibit an extremist group from inserting its own leaflets into mainstream newspapers?
As noted above, newspapers may refuse to sell advertising space to extremist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, but that has not stopped Klansmen from using newspapers as a medium to convey their hateful propaganda. One new tactic Klan groups have used is to insert their leaflets into local commercial newspapers. Often, Klan members then distribute the papers to individual homes. State laws may make it illegal for anyone to tamper with a newspaper. For instance, in 1998, the California legislature enacted a law making it a misdemeanor for a person to insert any advertisement into any free or for-sale newspaper without permission and to then deliver or intend to deliver the newspaper.
