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Levels of scrutiny for speech

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 4:57 pm
by DueProcessDoWheelies
This topic confuses me to no end, and I need to get it straightened out for tomorrow. Please let me know if I'm wrong about anything.

Public forum - regulation of speech based on content must meet strict scrutiny. Content neutral regulations must meet rational basis.

Limited public forum - regulation of speech must be viewpoint neutral and must meet intermediate scrutiny.

Nonpublic forum - all regulation of speech must meet rational basis.


Public forums = sidewalks, public parks, streets
Limited = courthouse steps, public libraries, public schools

Commercial speech regulations need only meet rational basis, right?

Also, what the hell is all this "narrowly tailored" shit? I went through law school and bar prep twice and that term still makes no sense to me.

Re: Levels of scrutiny for speech

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 8:20 pm
by encore1101
"Narrowly tailored" just means, in theory, that the regulation burdens speech no more than it needs to achieve the compelling government interest.

For example, assume that the government has a compelling government interest in forbidding television shows from showing depictions of terroristic attacks (just for sake of example).

In order to address this interest, they ban depictions of any crime. That would not be narrowly tailored, as the law banning depictions of any crime is more broad than it needs to be.