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Page Number: 16

12 

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FAMILY AND 
LIFE ADVOCATES v. BECERRA
 
Opinion of the Court 

applied strict scrutiny to content-based laws that regulate
the noncommercial speech of lawyers, see Reed, 576 U. S., 
at  ___  (slip  op.,  at  10)  (discussing  Button,  supra,  at  438); 
In re Primus, 436 U. S. 412, 432 (1978); professional fund-
raisers, see Riley, 487 U. S., at 798; and organizations that 
provided  specialized  advice  about  international  law,  see 
Holder  v.  Humanitarian  Law  Project,  561  U. S.  1,  27–28 
(2010).  And  the  Court  emphasized  that  the  lawyer’s
statements in Zauderer would have been “fully protected” 
if they were made in a context other than advertising.  471 
U. S., at 637, n. 7.  Moreover, this Court has  stressed the 
danger of content-based regulations “in the fields of medi-
cine and public health, where information can save lives.” 
Sorrell, supra, at 566. 

The  dangers  associated  with  content-based  regulations 
of  speech  are  also  present  in  the  context  of  professional 
speech.  As  with  other  kinds  of  speech,  regulating  the 
content  of  professionals’  speech  “pose[s]  the  inherent  risk 
that  the  Government  seeks  not  to  advance  a  legitimate 
regulatory goal, but to suppress unpopular ideas or infor-
mation.”  Turner  Broadcasting,  512  U. S.,  at  641.    Take 
medicine, for example.  “Doctors help patients make deeply 
personal  decisions,  and  their  candor  is  crucial.”    Woll-
schlaeger  v.  Governor  of  Florida,  848  F. 3d  1293,  1328 
(W.  Pryor,  J.  concurring).
(CA11  2017) 
Throughout history, governments have “manipulat[ed] the 
content of doctor-patient discourse” to increase state power 
and suppress minorities: 

(en  banc) 

“For  example,  during  the  Cultural  Revolution,  Chi-
nese physicians were dispatched to the countryside to
convince peasants to use contraception.  In the 1930s, 
the Soviet government expedited completion of a con-
struction  project  on  the  Siberian  railroad  by ordering
doctors to both reject  requests for medical leave from
work  and  conceal  this  government  order  from  their