Opinion ID: 2499424
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Type of Restriction: Prior Restraint

Text: [¶ 60] The term prior restraint is used to describe administrative and judicial orders forbidding certain communications when issued in advance of the time that such communications are to occur. Alexander v. United States, 509 U.S. 544, 550, 113 S.Ct. 2766, 2771, 125 L.Ed.2d 441 (1993) (quoting M. Nimmer, Nimmer on Freedom of Speech § 4.03 at 4-14 (1984)). A temporary restraining order is a classic example of a prior restraint. Id. [¶ 61] The Supreme Court has described prior restraints on speech as the most serious and the least tolerable infringement on First Amendment rights. Nebraska Press Ass'n, 427 U.S. at 559, 96 S.Ct. at 2803. Any prior restraint on expression bears a heavy presumption against its constitutional validity. New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713, 714, 91 S.Ct. 2140, 2141, 29 L.Ed.2d 822 (1971); see also CBS, Inc. v. Davis, 510 U.S. 1315, 1317, 114 S.Ct. 912, 914, 127 L.Ed.2d 358 (1994); Forsyth County, 505 U.S. at 130, 112 S.Ct. at 2401; Vance v. Universal Amusement Co., Inc., 445 U.S. 308, 316 n. 13, 100 S.Ct. 1156, 1161 n. 13, 63 L.Ed.2d 413 (1980). [¶ 62] The Supreme Court has explained the presumption against the validity of prior restraints, and the preference for other restrictions: The presumption against prior restraints is heavierand the degree of protection broaderthan that against limits on expression imposed by criminal penalties. Behind the distinction is a theory deeply etched in our law: a free society prefers to punish the few who abuse rights of speech after they break the law than to throttle them and all others beforehand. It is always difficult to know in advance what an individual will say, and the line between legitimate and illegitimate speech is often so finely drawn that the risks of freewheeling censorship are formidable. Vance, 445 U.S. at 316 n. 13, 100 S.Ct. at 1161 n. 13 (citations omitted). Along these lines, the Court has further commented: A criminal penalty or a judgment in a defamation case is subject to the whole panoply of protections afforded by deferring the impact of the judgment until all avenues of appellate review have been exhausted. Only after judgment has become final, correct or otherwise, does the law's sanction become fully operative. A prior restraint, by contrast and by definition, has an immediate and irreversible sanction. If it can be said that a threat of criminal or civil sanctions after publication chills speech, prior restraint freezes it at least for the time. Nebraska Press Ass'n, 427 U.S. at 559, 96 S.Ct. at 2803 (footnote omitted); see also Madsen, 512 U.S. at 764, 114 S.Ct. at 2524 (injunctions carry greater risk of censorship and discrimination than do ordinances). [¶ 63] The TRO issued in this case acted as a prior restraint on OSA's speech, and there is thus a heavy presumption against its constitutionality.