712
Opinion of Souter, J.
Blind of N. C., Inc., 487 U. S. 781,] 787-789 [(1988)]; Secretary of State of Maryland v. Joseph H. Munson Co., 467 U. S. 947, 959-961 (1984); Schaumburg v. Citizens for a Better Environment, 444 U. S. 620, 628-632 (1980). It is axiomatic that, although fraudulent misrepresentation of facts can be regulated, the dissemination of ideas cannot be regulated to prevent it from being unfair or unreasonable." Riley v. National Federation of Blind of N. C., Inc., 487 U. S. 781, 803 (1988) (Scalia, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment) (some citations omitted).
Even if I assume, arguendo, that the ban on the petitioners' activity at issue here is both content neutral and merely a restriction on the manner of communication, the regulation must be struck down for its failure to satisfy the requirements of narrow tailoring to further a significant state interest, see, e. g., Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence, 468 U. S. 288, 293 (1984), and availability of "ample alternative channels for communication," Virginia State Bd. of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Inc., 425 U. S. 748, 771 (1976).
As Justice Kennedy's opinion indicates, respondent comes closest to justifying the restriction as one furthering the government's interest in preventing coercion and fraud.*
*Respondent also attempts to justify his regulation on the alternative basis of "interference with air travelers," referring in particular to problems of "annoyance" and "congestion." Brief for Respondent 24-25, 42- 44, 47. The First Amendment inevitably requires people to put up with annoyance and uninvited persuasion. Indeed, in such cases we need to scrutinize restrictions on speech with special care. In their degree of congestion, most of the public spaces of these airports are probably more comparable to public streets than to the fairground as we described it in Heffron v. International Soc. for Krishna Consciousness, Inc., 452 U. S. 640, 651 (1981). Consequently, the congestion argument, which was held there to justify a regulation confining solicitation to a fixed location, should have less force here. See id., at 650-651. Be that as it may, the conclusion of a majority of the Court today that the Constitution forbids the ban on the sale, as well as the distribution, of leaflets puts to rest respondent's argument that congestion justifies a total ban on solicitation. While there
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