Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-1140_5368.pdf
Page Number: 23

Cite as:  585 U. S. ____ (2018) 

19 

Opinion of the Court 

censed  notice  applies  only  to  facilities  that  primarily 
provide “pregnancy-related” services.  §123471(b).  Thus, a 
facility  that  advertises  and  provides  pregnancy  tests  is
covered  by  the  unlicensed  notice,  but  a  facility  across  the
street  that  advertises  and  provides  nonprescription  con-
traceptives  is  excluded—even  though  the  latter  is  no  less
likely  to  make  women  think  it  is  licensed.  This  Court’s 
precedents are deeply skeptical of laws that “distinguis[h] 
among different speakers, allowing speech by some but not 
others.”  Citizens United v. Federal Election Comm’n, 558 
U. S.  310,  340  (2010).    Speaker-based  laws  run  the  risk
that “the State has left unburdened those speakers whose
messages  are  in  accord  with  its  own  views.”  Sorrell,  564 
U. S., at 580. 

The  application  of  the  unlicensed  notice  to  advertise-
ments demonstrates just how burdensome it is.  The notice 
applies  to  all  “print  and  digital  advertising  materials”  by
an unlicensed covered facility.  §123472(b).  These materi-
als  must  include  a  government-drafted  statement  that
“[t]his  facility  is  not  licensed  as  a  medical  facility  by  the 
State  of  California  and  has  no  licensed  medical  provider
who  provides  or  directly  supervises  the  provision  of  ser-
vices.”  §123472(b)(1).  An  unlicensed  facility  must  call
attention  to  the  notice,  instead  of  its  own  message,  by
some  method  such  as  larger  text  or  contrasting  type  or
color.  See  §§123472(b)(2)–(3).    This  scripted  language
must be posted in English and as many other languages as 
California  chooses  to  require.  As  California  conceded  at 
oral  argument,  a  billboard  for  an  unlicensed  facility  that
says “Choose Life” would have to surround that two-word
statement with a 29-word statement from the government, 
in  as  many  as  13  different  languages.    In  this  way,  the 
unlicensed  notice  drowns  out  the  facility’s  own  message. 
More likely, the “detail required” by the unlicensed notice
“effectively  rules  out”  the  possibility  of  having  such  a
billboard in the first place.  Ibanez, supra, at 146.