Williamsâyulee v. the Florida Bar (575 U.S. 433)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 29, 2015 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 575 U.S. 433 · 135 S. Ct. 1656
- Decided
- April 29, 2015
- Term
- October Term 2014
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Roberts
- Issue area
- First Amendment
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
As several of the Bar's amicinote, we applied the "closely drawn" test to solicitation restrictions in McConnell v. Federal Election Comm'n,540 U.S. 93, 136, 124 S.Ct. 619, 157 L.Ed.2d 491 (2003), overruled in part by Citizens United v. Federal Election Comm'n,558 U.S. 310, 130 S.Ct. 876, 175 L.Ed.2d 753 (2010). But the Court in that case determined that the solicitation restrictions operated primarily to prevent circumvention of the contribution limits, which were the subject of the "closely drawn" test in the first place. 540 U.S., at 138-139, 124 S.Ct. 619. McConnelloffers no help to the Bar here, because Florida did not adopt Canon 7C(1) as an anticircumvention measure. In sum, we hold today what we assumed in White: A State may restrict the speech of a judicial candidate only if the restriction is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling interest. III The Florida Bar faces a demanding task in defending Canon 7C(1) against Yulee's First Amendment challenge. We have emphasized that "it is the rare case" in which a State demonstrates that a speech restriction is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling interest. Burson v. Freeman,504 U.S. 191, 211, 112 S.Ct. 1846, 119 L.Ed.2d 5 (1992)(plurality opinion). But those cases do arise. See ibid.;Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project,561 U.S. 1, 25-39, 130 S.Ct. 2705, 177 L.Ed.2d 355 (2010); McConnell,540 U.S., at 314, 124 S.Ct.…
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