Cite as: 518 U. S. 727 (1996)
Opinion of Breyer, J.
V
Finally, we must ask whether § 10(a) is severable from the two other provisions. The question is one of legislative intent: Would Congress still "have passed" § 10(a) "had it known" that the remaining "provision[s were] invalid"? Brockett v. Spokane Arcades, Inc., 472 U. S. 491, 506 (1985). If so, we need not invalidate all three provisions. New York v. Ferber, 458 U. S., at 769, n. 24 (citing United States v. Thirty-seven Photographs, 402 U. S. 363 (1971)).
Although the 1992 Act contains no express "severability clause," we can find the Act's "severability" intention in its structure and purpose. It seems fairly obvious Congress would have intended its permissive "leased access" channels provision, § 10(a), to stand irrespective of § 10(c)'s legal fate. That is because the latter provision concerns only public, educational, and governmental channels. Its presence had little, if any, effect upon "leased access" channels; hence its absence in respect to those channels could not make a significant difference.
The "segregate and block" requirement's invalidity does make a difference, however, to the effectiveness of the permissive "leased access" provision, § 10(a). Together they told the cable system operator: "Either ban a 'patently offensive' program or 'segregate and block' it." Without the "segregate and block" provision, cable operators are afforded broad discretion over what to do with a patently offensive program, and because they will no longer bear the costs of segregation and blocking if they refuse to ban such programs, cable operators may choose to ban fewer programs.
Nonetheless, this difference does not make the two provisions unseverable. Without the "segregate and block" provision, the law simply treats leased channels (in respect to patently offensive programming) just as it treats all other channels. And judging by the absence of similar segregate and block provisions in the context of these other channels, Congress would probably have thought that § 10(a), standing
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