802
Opinion of Scalia, J.
[It was] attended by several hundred persons. Its acknowledged purpose was to secure compliance . . . with a lengthy list of demands for racial equality and racial justice. The boycott was supported by speeches and nonviolent picketing. Participants repeatedly encouraged others to join its cause.
"Each of these elements of the boycott is a form of speech or conduct that is ordinarily entitled to protection under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. . . . '[T]he practice of persons sharing common views banding together to achieve a common end is deeply embedded in the American political process.' We recognize that 'by collective effort individuals can make their views known, when, individually, their voices would be faint or lost.' " Id., at 907-908 (quoting Citizens Against Rent Control/Coalition for Fair Housing v. Berkeley, 454 U. S. 290, 294 (1981)).
We went on to say that "[t]he right to associate does not lose all constitutional protection merely because some members of the group may have participated in conduct or advocated doctrine that itself is not protected," 458 U. S., at 908, and held that the nonviolent elements of the protesters' activities were entitled to the protection of the First Amendment, id., at 915.
Because we recognized that the boycott involved elements of protected First Amendment speech and other elements not so protected, we took upon ourselves a highly particularized burden of review, recognizing a "special obligation on this Court to examine critically the basis on which liability was imposed." Ibid. "The First Amendment," we noted, "does not protect violence," but when conduct sanctionable by tort liability "occurs in the context of constitutionally protected activity . . . 'precision of regulation' is demanded." Id., at 916 (quoting NAACP v. Button, 371 U. S., at 438). Then, criticizing the Mississippi Supreme Court for "broadly assert[ing]—without differentiation—that [i]ntimi-
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