214
Scalia, J., concurring in judgment
to protect the integrity of the polling place where citizens exercise the right to vote. Voting is one of the most fundamental and cherished liberties in our democratic system of government. The State is not using this justification to suppress legitimate expression. With these observations, I concur in the opinion of Justice Blackmun and the judgment of the Court.
Justice Scalia, concurring in the judgment.
If the category of "traditional public forum" is to be a tool of analysis rather than a conclusory label, it must remain faithful to its name and derive its content from tradition. Because restrictions on speech around polling places on election day are as venerable a part of the American tradition as the secret ballot, Tenn. Code Ann. § 2-7-111 (Supp. 1991) does not restrict speech in a traditional public forum, and the "exacting scrutiny" that the plurality purports to apply, ante, at 198, is inappropriate. Instead, I believe that § 2-7- 111, though content based, is constitutional because it is a reasonable, viewpoint-neutral regulation of a nonpublic forum. I therefore concur in the judgment of the Court.
As the plurality correctly notes, the 100-foot zone established by § 2-7-111 sometimes encompasses streets and sidewalks adjacent to the polling places. Ante, at 196, n. 2. The plurality's determination that § 2-7-111 is subject to strict scrutiny is premised on its view that these areas are "quintessential public forums," having " 'by long tradition . . . been devoted to assembly and debate.' " Ante, at 196 (emphasis added). Insofar as areas adjacent to functioning polling places are concerned, that is simply not so. Statutes such as § 2-7-111 have an impressively long history of general use. Ever since the widespread adoption of the secret ballot in the late 19th century, viewpoint-neutral restrictions on election-day speech within a specified distance of the polling place—or on physical presence there—have been commonplace, indeed prevalent. By 1900, at least 34 of the 45
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