Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 892

529US3

Unit: $U60

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Cite as: 529 U. S. 803 (2000)

817

Opinion of the Court

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the burden of identifying a substantial interest and justi-
fying the challenged restriction”); Reno, 521 U. S., at 879
(“The breadth of this content-based restriction of speech
imposes an especially heavy burden on the Government to
explain why a less restrictive provision would not be as
.”); Edenﬁeld v. Fane, 507 U. S. 761, 770–771
effective .
(1993) (“[A] governmental body seeking to sustain a restric-
tion on commercial speech must demonstrate that the harms
it recites are real and that its restriction will in fact alleviate
them to a material degree”); Board of Trustees of State
Univ. of N. Y. v. Fox, 492 U. S. 469, 480 (1989) (“[T]he State
bears the burden of justifying its restrictions . . .”); Tinker
v. Des Moines Independent Community School Dist., 393
U. S. 503, 509 (1969) (“In order for the State . . . to justify
prohibition of a particular expression of opinion, it must be
able to show that its action was caused by something more
than a mere desire to avoid the discomfort and unpleasant-
ness that always accompany an unpopular viewpoint”).
When the Government seeks to restrict speech based on its
content, the usual presumption of constitutionality afforded
“Content-based reg-
congressional enactments is reversed.
ulations are presumptively invalid,” R. A. V. v. St. Paul, 505
U. S. 377, 382 (1992), and the Government bears the burden
to rebut that presumption.
This is for good reason.

“[T]he line between speech un-
conditionally guaranteed and speech which may legitimately
be regulated, suppressed, or punished is ﬁnely drawn.”
Speiser v. Randall, 357 U. S. 513, 525 (1958). Error in mark-
ing that line exacts an extraordinary cost.
It is through
speech that our convictions and beliefs are inﬂuenced, ex-
It is through speech that we bring
pressed, and tested.
It is
those beliefs to bear on Government and on society.
through speech that our personalities are formed and ex-
pressed. The citizen is entitled to seek out or reject certain
ideas or inﬂuences without Government interference or
control.