654
Opinion of the Court
We explained that, in practical effect, Florida's right-of-reply statute would deter newspapers from speaking in unfavorable terms about political candidates:
"Faced with the penalties that would accrue to any newspaper that published news or commentary arguably within the reach of the right-of-access statute, editors might well conclude that the safe course is to avoid controversy. Therefore, under the operation of the Florida statute, political and electoral coverage would be blunted or reduced." Id., at 257.
Moreover, by affording mandatory access to speakers with which the newspaper disagreed, the law induced the newspaper to respond to the candidates' replies when it might have preferred to remain silent. See Pacific Gas & Elec. Co. v. Public Util. Comm'n of Cal., 475 U. S. 1, 11 (1986) (plurality opinion).
The same principles led us to invalidate a similar content-based access regulation in Pacific Gas & Electric. At issue was a rule requiring a privately owned utility, on a quarterly basis, to include with its monthly bills an editorial newsletter published by a consumer group critical of the utility's rate-making practices. Although the access requirement applicable to the utility, unlike the statutory mechanism in Tornillo, was not triggered by speech of any particular content, the plurality held that the same strict First Amendment scrutiny applied. Like the statute in Tornillo, the regulation conferred benefits to speakers based on viewpoint, giving access only to a consumer group opposing the utility's practices. 475 U. S., at 13, 15. The plurality observed that in order to avoid the appearance that it agreed with the group's views, the utility would "feel compelled to respond to arguments and allegations made by [the group] in its messages to [the utility's] customers." Id., at 16. This "kind of forced response," the plurality explained, "is antithetical to
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