prior restraint
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 380 U.S. 51 - Freedman v. Maryland · 1965Most cited · 3,041 citing opinions
Any system of prior restraints of expression comes to this Court bearing a heavy presumption against its constitutional validity
How the Supreme Court has restated “prior restraint”
Each Supreme Court definition of “prior restraint,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “prior restraint”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “prior restraint” — 6,867 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 3 definitions, chronological · 1965–1969
Prior restraint upon speech suppresses the precise freedom which the First Amendment sought to protect against abridgment. A system of prior restraints of expression comes to this Court bearing a heavy presumption against its constitutional validity.
an ordinance which, like this one, makes the peaceful enjoyment of freedoms which the Constitution guarantees contingent upon the uncontrolled will of an official—as by requiring a permit or license which may be granted or withheld in the discretion of such official—is an unconstitutional censorship or prior restraint upon the enjoyment of those freedoms