Public Utility Commission of the District of Columbia v. Pollak, 343 U.S. 451 (1952), is a United States Supreme Court decision which held that the playing of radio programs on street cars and busses of a transit system regulated by the government as a public utility did not violate the First or Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

[2] The majority opinion by Justice Burton that the playing of music with occasional announcements that were explanatory and commendatory of Capital Transit's services did not violate the First Amendment's protection of Freedom of Speech as there were no claims that the programming included objectionable propaganda, and the playing of music did not interfere with the conversations of the passengers.

[3] There was also no violation of the Fifth Amendment as the Due Process Clause did not guarantee a right of privacy in public transit equivalent to that in a person's own home or vehicle.

[7] The Supreme Court would later review a portion of the Pollak ruling in Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison Co.,[8] a case where the issue was whether extensive state regulation made the actions of a public utility a state action that was reviewable under the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Jackson opinion noted that the Court in Pollak did not determine whether the playing of the radio programs on the regulated transit system constituted state action as a result of the regulation by the D.C. Public Utilities Commission, but simply assumed state action for the purposes of evaluating the constitutional questions.