Also known as: censor · censors · censored · censoring · censorship law · prior restraint
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A governmental scheme or action that prevents or suppresses speech before it occurs. Such measures face a heavy presumption of invalidity under the First Amendment and may be upheld only upon a showing of special societal harm such as serious threats to national security.
Christine Castro prepares an article detailing troop movements near a foreign conflict zone. Federal officials obtain a court order blocking publication until after the operation concludes. The court upholds the order because the government meets its heavy burden by demonstrating imminent national security harm from disclosure.
Cody Callahan publishes an editorial criticizing a city official's handling of public funds. The official sues for libel and obtains a large damage award without proving actual malice. The judgment prompts Callahan and other reporters to withhold similar stories to avoid future liability.
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Central Dynamics obtains classified documents on government policy and plans to publish excerpts. The United States seeks an injunction to stop release. The court denies the injunction because the government fails to show that publication would cause the requisite degree of harm to national security.
Carmen Choi refuses to recite the pledge of allegiance during a school assembly. School officials threaten expulsion for noncompliance with the mandatory salute. The court strikes down the requirement because it compels affirmation of belief and functions as unconstitutional censorship of dissenting views.
Carlos Castillo seeks to attend and report on a high-profile criminal trial. The trial court closes the proceedings to the press and public to protect the defendant's rights. The court reverses the closure order because less restrictive alternatives exist and the blanket exclusion amounts to impermissible prior restraint.
Corinne Cho submits an article to a student publication funded by university grants. Officials deny funding because the piece expresses a disfavored religious viewpoint. The court holds the denial unconstitutional because it discriminates on the basis of content and operates as impermissible censorship of private speech.
The government bears a heavy burden to show that the restraint prevents a special societal harm such as serious threats to national security. Limited exceptions exist for matters like troop movements in wartime but ordinary concerns do not suffice.
Supporting sources
Large libel judgments without proof of actual malice can induce self-censorship by the press. This chilling effect functions as a form of indirect prior restraint on protected speech about public officials.
Supporting sources
Closure orders are presumptively invalid and require a showing that no less restrictive alternatives protect the defendant's rights. Blanket exclusions without narrow tailoring violate the First Amendment right of access.
…public's access to forms of the printed word which the State could not constitutionally suppress directly. The bookseller's self-censorship, compelled by the State, would be a censorship affecting the whole public, hardly less virulent for being privately administered. Through it, the distribution of all books, both obscene and…