Cite as: 517 U. S. 186 (1996)
Opinion of Stevens, J.
that we find no constitutional impediment to enforcing § 5 in the case before us.38 We leave consideration of hypothetical concerns for another day.39
38 We recognize that there is a narrow category of exceptional cases in which litigants "are permitted to challenge a statute not because their own rights of free expression are violated, but because of a judicial prediction or assumption that the statute's very existence may cause others not before the court to refrain from constitutionally protected speech or expression." Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U. S. 601, 612 (1973). Because a claim of facial overbreadth, if successful, is such "strong medicine," the doctrine "has been employed by the Court sparingly and only as a last resort." Id., at 613. Specifically, as is the case with § 5 of the Voting Rights Act, "where conduct and not merely speech is involved, we believe that the overbreadth of a statute must not only be real, but substantial as well, judged in relation to the statute's plainly legitimate sweep." Id., at 615. The breadth and importance of the legitimate sweep of § 5 have been demonstrated in a long and unbroken line of decisions applying its preclearance requirements to covered jurisdictions. Even among political parties, it is undisputed that the right of associative freedom would not provide a defense to many practices condemned by § 5. See Smith, 321 U. S., at 657; Eu, 489 U. S., at 232. Cf. Tashjian v. Republican Party of Conn., 479 U. S. 208, 237 (1986) (Scalia, J., dissenting) (the State "may lawfully require that significant elements of the democratic election process be democratic—whether the Party wants that or not"). Presumably that is why appellees have not argued that § 5 is invalid on its face. Unlike Justice Scalia, we do not believe that the possibility that some future application of the statute might violate the First Amendment justifies a departure from our "traditional rules governing constitutional adjudication." 413 U. S., at 610.
We also disagree with his assertion that the requirement that the Party preclear a change in practices that imposes a registration fee on voters seeking to participate in the nomination process is a "classic prior restraint." It imposes no restraint at all on speech. Given the past history of discrimination that gave rise to the preclearance remedy imposed by § 5, the minimal burden on the right of association implicated in this case is unquestionably justified.
39 Relying on statements in appellees' brief, rather than anything in the record, Justice Thomas suggests that the registration fee was intended to avoid the danger that funding the convention with contributions from a few major donors would enable a small group of contributors to exercise
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