Cite as: 512 U. S. 622 (1994)
Opinion of Stevens, J.
As Justice Kennedy recognizes, ante, at 665-666, findings by the Congress, particularly those emerging from such sustained deliberations, merit special respect from this Court.2 Accorded proper deference, the findings in § 2 are sufficient to sustain the must-carry provisions against facial attack. Congress' conclusion, for example, that broadcasters who are denied carriage on cable systems will suffer serious and potentially terminal economic harm, see § 2(a)(16), requires no "further demonstration." See ante, at 667. Because 60% of American households have cable, and because most cable subscribers rely solely on that medium to receive video signals, it is a practical certainty that a broadcaster dropped from the local cable system would suffer substantial economic harm. It is also clear that cable operators—particularly (but not exclusively) those affiliated with cable programmers—have both the ability and the economic incentive to exploit their gatekeeper status to the detriment of broadcasters. Thus, even if Congress had had before it no historical evidence that terminations or refusals of carriage had already occurred,3 it could reasonably infer that cable operators' bottleneck control, together with the already high degree of vertical integration in the industry, would motivate
factfinder. Ante, at 666. In my view, however, application of that standard would require affirmance here.
2 As Justice Kennedy observes, ibid., we cannot abdicate our responsibility to decide whether a restriction on speech violates the First Amendment. But the factual findings accompanying economic measures that are enacted by Congress itself and that have only incidental effects on speech merit greater deference than those supporting content-based restrictions on speech, see Sable Communications of Cal., Inc. v. FCC, 492 U. S. 115, 129 (1989); Landmark Communications, Inc. v. Virginia, 435 U. S. 829, 843 (1978) (both cited ante, at 666), or restrictions imposed by administrative agencies, see, e. g., Century Communications Corp. v. FCC, 835 F. 2d 292, 304 (CADC 1987) (cited ante, at 666).
3 But see H. R. Rep. No. 102-628, pp. 50-57 (1992); S. Rep. No. 102-92, pp. 43-44 (1991).
671
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