Opinion ID: 2009286
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Prior Restraint/Chilling Effect

Text: Appellants also contend that § 5903(a)(1) imposes an impermissible prior restraint on booksellers, by forcing them to choose between censoring publications prior to their public display, or risking prosecution. We cannot agree with this chilling effect argument. [24] Section 5903(a)(1) is sufficiently specific as to provide notice of proscribed conduct. Moreover, a scienter requirement is included within the definition of the crime; the mere fact that booksellers might engage in self-censorship does not require invalidation of the statute. The existence of a chilling effect, even in the area of First Amendment rights, has never been considered a sufficient basis, in and of itself, for prohibiting state action . . . . . . Just as the incidental chilling effect of such statutes does not automatically render them unconstitutional, so the chilling effect that admittedly can result from the very existence of certain laws on the statute books does not in itself justify prohibiting the State from carrying out the important and necessary task of enforcing these laws against socially harmful conduct that the State believes in good faith to be punishable under its laws and the Constitution. Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 51-52, 91 S.Ct. 746, 754, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971).