Cite as: 524 U. S. 569 (1998)
Syllabus
but neither is the Court persuaded that, in other applications, the language of § 954(d)(1) itself will give rise to the suppression of protected expression. Any content-based considerations that may be taken into account are a consequence of the nature of arts funding; the NEA has limited resources to allocate among many "artistically excellent" projects, and it does so on the basis of a wide variety of subjective criteria. Respondent's reliance on Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of Univ. of Va., 515 U. S. 819, 837—in which the Court overturned a public university's objective decision denying funding to all student publications having religious editorial viewpoints—is therefore misplaced. The NEA's mandate is to make esthetic judgments, and the inherently content-based "excellence" threshold for NEA support sets it apart from the subsidy at issue in Rosenberger. Moreover, although the First Amendment applies in the subsidy context, Congress has wide latitude to set spending priorities. See, e. g., Regan v. Taxation with Representation of Wash., 461 U. S. 540, 549. Unless § 954(d)(1) is applied in a manner that raises concern about the suppression of disfavored viewpoints, the Court will uphold it. Pp. 580-588.
(b) The lower courts also erred in invalidating § 954(d)(1) as unconstitutionally vague. The First and Fifth Amendments protect speakers from arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement of vague standards. See NAACP v. Button, 371 U. S. 415, 432-433. Section 954(d)(1)'s terms are undeniably opaque, and if they appeared in a criminal statute or regulatory scheme, they could raise substantial vagueness concerns. It is unlikely, however, that speakers will be compelled to steer too far clear of any forbidden area in the context of NEA grants. As a practical matter, artists may conform their speech to what they believe to be the NEA decisionmaking criteria in order to acquire funding. But when the Government is acting as patron rather than sovereign, the consequences of imprecision are not constitutionally severe. In the context of selective subsidies, it is not always feasible for Congress to legislate with clarity. Indeed, to accept respondents' vagueness argument would be to call into question the constitutionality of the many valuable Government programs awarding scholarships and grants on the basis of subjective criteria such as "excellence." Pp. 588-590.
100 F. 3d 671, reversed and remanded.
OTMConnor, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Rehnquist, C. J., and Stevens, Kennedy, and Breyer, JJ., joined, and in all but Part II-B of which Ginsburg, J., joined. Scalia, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, in which Thomas, J., joined, post, p. 590. Souter, J., filed a dissenting opinion, post, p. 600.
571
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