798
Opinion of Scalia, J.
[prior restraint] doctrine . . . encompasses injunctive systems which threaten or bar future speech based on some past in-fraction") (Kennedy, J., dissenting). We have said 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)), and have repeatedly struck down speech-restricting injunctions. See, e. g., Youngdahl v. Rainfair, Inc., 355 U. S. 131 (1957); Keefe, supra; New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U. S. 713 (1971); Nebraska Press Assn. v. Stuart, 427 U. S. 539 (1976); National Socialist Party of America v. Skokie, 432 U. S. 43 (1977); Vance v. Universal Amusement Co., 445 U. S. 308 (1980) (statute authorizing injunctions); CBS Inc. v. Davis, 510 U. S. 1315 (1994) (Blackmun, J., in chambers) (setting aside state-court preliminary injunction against a scheduled broadcast).
At oral argument neither respondents nor the Solicitor General, appearing as amicus for respondents, could identify a single speech-injunction case applying mere intermediate scrutiny (which differs little if at all from the Court's intermediate-intermediate scrutiny). We have, in our speech-injunction cases, affirmed both requirements that characterize strict scrutiny: compelling public need and surgical precision of restraint. Even when (unlike in the present case) the First Amendment activity is intermixed with violent conduct, " 'precision of regulation' is demanded." NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U. S. 886, 916 (1982) (quoting NAACP v. Button, 371 U. S. 415, 438 (1963)). In Milk Wagon Drivers v. Meadowmoor Dairies, Inc., 312 U. S. 287 (1941), we upheld an injunction prohibiting peaceful picketing, but only because the picketing had been accompanied by 50 instances of window smashing, bombings, stench
basis for their issuance is not content but prior unlawful conduct. This distinction has no antecedent in our cases.
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