Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-1140_5368.pdf
Page Number: 4.0

4 

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FAMILY AND 
LIFE ADVOCATES v. BECERRA
 
Syllabus
 

countancy, 512 U. S. 136, 146, and can extend “no broader than rea-
sonably necessary,” In re R. M. J., 455 U. S. 191, 203.  California has 
not  demonstrated  any  justification  for  the  unlicensed  notice  that  is
more  than  “purely  hypothetical.”    The  only  justification  put  forward 
by  the  state  legislature  was  ensuring  that  pregnant  women  know 
when they are receiving medical care from licensed professionals, but 
California  denied  that  the  justification  for  the  law  was  that  women
did not know what kind of facility they are entering when they go to a
crisis pregnancy center.  Even if the State had presented a nonhypo-
thetical justification, the FACT Act unduly burdens protected speech. 
It  imposes  a  government-scripted,  speaker-based  disclosure  require-
ment  that  is  wholly  disconnected  from  the  State’s  informational  in-
terest.  It requires covered facilities to post California’s precise notice,
no  matter  what  the  facilities  say  on  site  or  in  their  advertisements. 
And  it  covers  a  curiously  narrow  subset  of  speakers:  those  that  pri-
marily  provide  pregnancy-related  services,  but  not  those  that  pro-
vide,  e.g.,  nonprescription  birth  control.  Such  speaker-based  laws 
run  the  risk  that  “the  State  has  left  unburdened  those  speakers 
whose messages are in accord with its own views.”  Sorrell, supra, at 
580.  For  these  reasons,  the  unlicensed  notice  does  not  satisfy  Zau-
derer, assuming that standard applies.  Pp. 17–20. 

839 F. 3d 823, reversed and remanded. 

THOMAS,  J.,  delivered  the  opinion  of  the  Court,  in  which  ROBERTS, 
C. J., and KENNEDY, ALITO, and GORSUCH, JJ., joined.  KENNEDY, J., filed 
a concurring opinion, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and ALITO and GORSUCH, 
JJ.,  joined.  BREYER,  J.,  filed  dissenting  opinion,  in  which  GINSBURG, 
SOTOMAYOR, and KAGAN, JJ., joined.