Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-411_3dq3.pdf
Page Number: 65.0

Cite as:  603 U. S. ____ (2024) 

31 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

White House Briefing on Drug Abuse (Mar. 7, 1988).27  But 
he  never  threatened  to  do  anything  to  media  outlets  that
were soft on the issue of drugs.  President Theodore Roose-
velt  “lambasted  ‘muck-raking’  journalists”  as  “ ‘one  of  the 
most potent forces for evil’ ” and encouraged journalists to
speak truth, rather than slander.  Brief for Petitioners 24 
(quoting The American Presidency Project, Remarks at the 
Laying  of  the  Cornerstone  of  the  Office  Building  of  the
House of Representatives (Apr. 14, 1906)).28  But his com-
ment did not threaten any action against the muckrakers,
see Goodwin 480–487, and it is unclear what he could have 
done to them.  President George W. Bush denounced por-
nography  as  “debilitating”  for  “communities,  marriages, 
Presidential  Proclamation 
families,  and  children.” 
No. 7725, 3 CFR 129 (2003 Comp.).  But he never threat-
ened to take action against pornography that was not “ob-
scene” within the meaning of our precedents. 

The Government’s last example is a 1915 speech in which
President  Wilson  deplored  false  reporting  that  the  Japa-
nese  were  using  Turtle  Bay,  California,  as  a  naval  base.
The  American  Presidency  Project,  Address  at  the  Associ-
ated  Press  Luncheon  in  New  York  City  (Apr.  20,  1915).29 
Speaking to a gathering of reporters, President Wilson pro-
claimed: “We ought not to permit that sort of thing to use 
up the electrical energy of the [telegraph] wires, because its 
energy is malign, its energy is not of the truth, its energy is 
mischief.”  Ibid.  Wilson’s  comment  is  best  understood  as 
metaphorical and hortatory, not as a legal threat.  And in 
any event, it is hard to see how he could have brought about 
censorship  of  telegraph  companies  because  the  Mann-

—————— 

27 https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/remarks-media-ex

ecutives-white-house-briefing-drug-abuse. 

28 https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-laying-
the-cornerstone-the-office-building-the-house-representatives-the-man. 
29 https: // www.presidency.ucsb.edu / documents/address-the-associated-

press-luncheon-new-york-city.