Opinion of the Court. 308 U.S. officer's judgment evidence as to his good character and as to the absence of fraud in the "project" he proposes to promote or the literature he intends to distribute, and must undergo a burdensome and inquisitorial examination, including photographing and fingerprinting. In the end, his liberty to communicate with the residents of the town at their homes depends upon the exercise of the officer's discretion. As said in Lovell v. City of Griffin, supra, pamphlets have proved most effective instruments in the dissemination of opinion. And perhaps the most effective way of bringing them to the notice of individuals is their distribution at the homes of the people. On this method of communication the ordinance imposes censorship, abuse of which engendered the struggle in England which eventuated in the establishment of the doctrine of the freedom of the press embodied in our Constitution. To require a censorship through license which makes impossible the free and unhampered distribution of pamphlets strikes at the very heart of the constitutional guarantees. Conceding that fraudulent appeals may be made in the name of charity and religion, we hold a municipality cannot, for this reason, require all who wish to disseminate ideas to present them first to police authorities for their consideration and approval, with a discretion in the police to say some ideas may, while others may not, be carried to the homes of citizens; some persons may, while others may not, disseminate information from house to house. Frauds may be denounced as offenses and punished by law. Trespasses may similarly be forbidden. If it is said that these means are less efficient and convenient than bestowal of power on police authorities to decide what information may be disseminated from house to house, and who may impart the information, the answer is that considerations of this sort do not empower a municipality to abridge freedom of speech and press. We are not to be taken as holding that commercial soliciting and canvassing may not be subjected to such regulation as the ordinance requires. Nor do we hold that the town may not fix reasonable hours when canvassing may be done by persons having such objects as the petitioner. Doubtless there are other features of such activities which may be regulated in the public interest without prior licensing or other invasion of constitutional liberty. We do hold, however, that the ordinance in question, as applied to the petitioner's conduct, is void, and she cannot be punished for acting without a permit. The judgment in each case is reversed and the causes are remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. Reversed. MR. JUSTICE MCREYNOLDS is of opinion that the judgment in each case should be affirmed. NEIRBO CO. ET AL. v. BETHLEHEM SHIPBUILDING CORP., LTD. CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT. No. 38. Argued October 17, 18, 1939-Decided November 22, 1939. 1. Section 51 of the Judicial Code, as amended, which provides that "no civil suit shall be brought in any district court against any person by any original process or proceeding in any other district than that whereof he is an inhabitant; but where the jurisdiction is founded only on the fact that the action is between citizens of different States, suit shall be brought only in the district of the residence of either the plaintiff or the defendant," merely accords to the defendant a personal privilege of objecting to the venue of suits brought against him in districts wherein under the section he may not be compelled to answer. P. 168. 2. The privilege accorded by § 51 may be lost by failure to assert it seasonably, by formal submission in a cause, or by submission through conduct. P. 168. 3. Such surrender of the privilege may be regarded negatively as a waiver or positively as a consent to be sued. P. 168. 4. A designation by a foreign corporation, in conformity with a valid statute of a State and as a condition of doing business within it, of an agent upon whom service of process may be made, held an effective consent to be sued in the federal courts of that State. Pp. 170, 174. 5. Prior to the amendment of 1887, the provision was that "no civil suit shall be brought before either of said courts against any person by any original process or proceeding in any other district than that whereof he is an inhabitant, or in which he shall be found..." Held, the omission by that amendment of the words "in which he shall be found" was not intended to affect the implications of a consent to be sued and was not directed toward any change in the status of a corporate litigant. Ex parte Schollenberger, 96 U. S. 369, and Southern Pacific Co. v. Denton, 146 U. S. 202, reconciled. P. 171. 6. A State constitutionally may require a foreign corporation, as a condition of doing a local business, to designate an agent upon whom service of process may be made. P. 175. 7. The finding in this case that the foreign corporation, by its designation under the state law of an agent for the service of process, had consented to be sued in the courts of the State, federal as well as state, is not a subjection of federal procedure to the requirements of state law, but a recognition that state legislation and consent of parties may bring about a state of facts which will authorize the federal courts to take cognizance of a case. P. 175. 103 F.2d 765, reversed. . CERTIORARI, 307 U. S. 619, to review the affirmance of an order of the district court quashing service of process on the respondent corporation and dismissing as to it the petitioners' bill. Messrs. Robert P. Weil and Laurence Arnold Tanzer for petitioners. Mr. William D. Whitney for respondent. 165 Opinion of the Court. MR. JUSTICE FRANKFURTER delivered the opinion of the Court. The case is here to review the affirmance by the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit of an order of the District Court for the Southern District of New York setting aside service of process upon Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Ltd. (hereafter called Bethlehem) and dismissing as to it petitioners' bill, 103 F. 2d 765. The suit was based on diversity of citizenship and was not brought "in the district of the residence of either the plaintiff or the defendant." (§ 51 of the Judicial Code, Act of March 3, 1887, 24 Stat. 552, as corrected by Act of August 13, 1888, 25 Stat. 433, 28 U. S. C. § 112.1) We took the case, 307 U. S. 619, because of the uncertainties in application of-§ 51, emphasized by conflict between the views below and those of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Oklahoma Packing Co. v. Oklahoma Gas & Elec. Co., 100 F.2d 770. The sole question in the case is whether § 51 is satisfied by the designation by a foreign corporation of an agent for service of process, in conformity with the law of a state in which suit is brought against it in one of the federal courts for that state. The jurisdiction of the federal courts-their power to adjudicate is a grant of authority to them by Congress and thus beyond the scope of litigants to confer. But 1Section 112 reads as follows: "Except as provided in sections 113 to 117 of this title, no person shall be arrested in one district for trial in another in any civil action before a district court; and, except as provided in sections 113 to 118 of this title, no civil suit shall be brought in any district court against any person by any original process or proceeding in any other district than that whereof he is an inhabitant; but where the jurisdiction is founded only on the fact that the action is between citizens of different States, suit shall be brought only in the district of the residence of either the plaintiff or the defendant." Opinion of the Court. 308 U.S. the locality of a law suit-the place where judicial authority may be exercised-though defined by legislation relates to the convenience of litigants and as such is subject to their disposition. This basic difference between the court's power and the litigant's convenience is historic in the federal courts. After a period of confusing deviation it was firmly reëstablished in General Investment Co. v. Lake Shore Ry. Co., 260 U. S. 261, and Lee v. Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. Co., ibid. 653, over-ruling Ex parte Wisner, 203 U. S. 449, and qualifying In re Moore, 209 U. S. 490. All the parties may be non-residents of the district where suit is brought. Lee v. Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. Co., supra. Section 51 "merely accords to the defendant a personal privilege respecting the venue, or place of suit, which he may assert, or may waive, at his election." Commercial Ins. Co. v. Stone Co., 278 U. S 177, 179. Being a privilege, it may be lost. It may be lost by failure to assert it seasonably, by formal submission in a cause, or by submission through conduct. Commercial Ins. Co. v. Stone Co., supra. Whether such surrender of a personal immunity be conceived negatively as a waiver or positively as a consent to be sued, is merely an expression of literary preference. The essence of the matter is that courts affix to conduct consequences as to place of suit consistent with the policy behind § 51, which is "to save defendants from inconveniences to which they might be subjected if they could be compelled to answer in any district, or wherever found." General Investment Co. v. Lake Shore Ry. Co., supra, at 275. When the litigants are natural persons the conceptions underlying venue present relatively few problems in application. But in the case of corporate litigants these procedural problems are enmeshed in the wider intricacies touching the status of a corporation in our law. The |