Cite as: 510 U. S. 1315 (1994)
Opinion in Chambers
Although a single Justice may stay a lower court order only under extraordinary circumstances, such circumstances are presented here. For many years it has been clearly established that a "prior restraint on expression comes to this Court with a 'heavy presumption' against its constitutional validity." Organization for a Better Austin v. Keefe, 402 U. S. 415, 419 (1971), quoting Carroll v. President and Comm'rs of Princess Anne, 393 U. S. 175, 181 (1968). "Where . . . a direct prior restraint is imposed upon the reporting of news by the media, each passing day may constitute a separate and cognizable infringement of the First Amendment." Nebraska Press Assn. v. Stuart, 423 U. S. 1319, 1329 (1975) (Blackmun, J., in chambers). As the Court recognized in Nebraska Press Assn. v. Stuart, 427 U. S. 539, 559 (1976) (footnote omitted), prior restraints are particularly disfavored:
"A criminal penalty or a judgment in a defamation case is subject to the whole panoply of protections afforded by deferring the impact of the judgment until all avenues of appellate review have been exhausted . . . .
"A prior restraint, by contrast . . . , has an immediate and irreversible sanction. If it can be said that a threat of criminal or civil sanctions after publication 'chills' speech, prior restraint 'freezes' it at least for the time."
Although the prohibition against prior restraints is by no means absolute, the gagging of publication has been considered acceptable only in "exceptional cases." Near v. Minnesota ex rel. Olson, 283 U. S. 697, 716 (1931). Even where questions of allegedly urgent national security, see New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U. S. 713 (1971), or competing constitutional interests, Nebraska Press Assn., 427 U. S., at 559, are concerned, we have imposed this "most extraordinary remed[y]" only where the evil that would result from the reportage is both great and certain and cannot be mitigated by less intrusive measures. Id., at 562.
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