Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-251_p86b.pdf
Page Number: 13.0

Cite as:  594 U. S. ____ (2021) 

9 

Opinion of the Court 

2 
The Law Center (now joined by the Foundation) argues
in  the  alternative  that  even  if  exacting  scrutiny  applies, 
such review incorporates a least restrictive means test sim-
ilar  to  the  one  imposed  by  strict  scrutiny.  The  United 
States  and  the  Attorney  General  respond  that  exacting
scrutiny demands no additional tailoring beyond the “sub-
stantial relation” requirement noted above.  We think that 
the answer lies between those two positions.  While exact-
ing scrutiny does not require that disclosure regimes be the
least restrictive means of achieving their ends, it does re-
quire that they be narrowly tailored to the government’s as-
serted interest. 

The need for narrow tailoring was set forth early in our
compelled disclosure cases.  In Shelton v. Tucker, we con-
sidered an Arkansas statute that required teachers to dis-
close every organization to which they belonged or contrib-
uted.  364 U. S., at 480.  We acknowledged the importance
of “the right of a State to investigate the competence and 
fitness of those whom it hires to teach in its schools.”  Id., 
at 485.  On that basis, we distinguished prior decisions in
which we had found “no substantially relevant correlation
between the governmental interest asserted and the State’s 
effort to compel disclosure.”  Ibid.  But we nevertheless held 
that the Arkansas statute was invalid because even a “le-
gitimate and substantial” governmental interest “cannot be 
pursued by means that broadly stifle fundamental personal
liberties when the end can be more narrowly achieved.”  Id., 
at 488; see also Louisiana ex rel. Gremillion v. NAACP, 366 
U. S. 293, 296 (1961) (quoting same). 

Shelton stands for the proposition that a substantial re-
lation to an important interest is not enough to save a dis-
closure regime that is insufficiently tailored.  This require-
ment makes sense.  Narrow tailoring is crucial where First 
Amendment  activity 
indirectly—
“[b]ecause  First  Amendment  freedoms  need  breathing 

is  chilled—even 

if