Record
Court opinion
1963-12-06
CourtListener (Free Law Project), text of the opinion
Kelly v. Illinois Bell Telephone Co., 325 F.2d 148 (7th Cir. 1963)
Seventh Circuit decision of 6 December 1963 affirming an injunction that kept Illinois Bell and Western Union from cutting off the Illinois Sports News under the Wire Act's section 1084(d), on stipulated facts that its wires carried racing news for publications sold to the public.
- Date
- 1963-12-06
- Kind
- court-opinion
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- Docket
- Nos. 14112-14114
- Rights
- Opinion of a United States court, a federal work in the public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. CourtListener (Free Law Project) hosts the text; it is not the source institution.
The plaintiffs were “Thomas F. Kelly, Sr., Thomas F. Kelly, Jr., and George L. Kelly, co-partners doing business under the name and style of Illinois Sports News.” In April 1962, on written notice from the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Illinois Bell and Western Union told them that service would be discontinued under 18 U.S.C. § 1084(d), the cut-off provision of the 1961 Wire Act. The district court (210 F. Supp. 456, not opened here) permanently enjoined the companies, and Illinois Bell and the United States, as intervenor, appealed. Walter E. Gallagher of Washington appeared for the Kellys.
It was stipulated that the plaintiffs used the facilities “for the sole purpose of receiving and transmitting racing and other news to be published in publications sold and distributed to the general public,” and the district court found that they “accept no bets or wagers.” Judge Knoch’s opinion agreed with the district court’s reading of the statute and its exemption for news reporting, and held that the single district judge had not needed to convene a three-judge court, because the non-constitutional ground decided the case. The order was “Affirmed.”
The Kefauver Committee heard the trade name Illinois Sports News from a George Kelly in 1950, and Continental’s general manager in 1950 was a Thomas F. Kelly. This opinion does not say whether the partners are those witnesses, and this page does not assume it.