Opinion ID: 2499424
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: First Amendment Protections

Text: [¶ 57] The First Amendment reflects a `profound national commitment' to the principle that `debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wideopen.' Boos v. Barry, 485 U.S. 312, 318, 108 S.Ct. 1157, 1162, 99 L.Ed.2d 333 (1988) (quoting New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 270, 84 S.Ct. 710, 721, 11 L.Ed.2d 686 (1964)). [A]s a general matter, the First Amendment means that government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content. United States v. Stevens, ___ U.S. ___, 130 S.Ct. 1577, 1584, 176 L.Ed.2d 435 (2010) (quoting Ashcroft v. A.C.L.U., 535 U.S. 564, 573, 122 S.Ct. 1700, 1707, 152 L.Ed.2d 771 (2002)); see also Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Ass'n, ___ U.S. ___, 131 S.Ct. 2729, 2733, 180 L.Ed.2d 708 (2011). Its general protections are not, however, absolute. Ashcroft, 535 U.S. at 573, 122 S.Ct. at 1707. [¶ 58] Through its numerous decisions interpreting First Amendment protections, the United States Supreme Court has outlined the required considerations for determining whether a government restriction on speech is permissible. That determination turns on the type of restraint, the type of speech, the forum in which the speech is restrained, and the nature of the restriction, that is, whether it is content-neutral or content-based. See, e.g., Stevens, 130 S.Ct. at 1584-85 (type of speech); Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, 555 U.S. 460, 469-70, 129 S.Ct. 1125, 1132, 172 L.Ed.2d 853 (2009) (type of forum); Madsen v. Women's Health Center, Inc., 512 U.S. 753, 765, 114 S.Ct. 2516, 2524-25, 129 L.Ed.2d 593 (1994) (type of restraint); Forsyth County v. The Nationalist Movement, 505 U.S. 123, 134-35, 112 S.Ct. 2395, 2403-04, 120 L.Ed.2d 101 (1992) (content regulation). [¶ 59] These considerations dictate the level of scrutiny that must be used in determining whether a government restriction on speech is constitutional, and we thus consider each in turn as they apply to the TRO issued in this case.