Cite as: 524 U. S. 569 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
ity agreed with the District Court that the NEA was compelled by the adoption of § 954(d)(1) to alter its grant-making procedures to ensure that applications are judged according to the "decency and respect" criteria. The Chairperson, the court reasoned, "has no discretion to ignore this obligation, enforce only part of it, or give it a cramped construction." Id., at 680. Concluding that the "decency and respect" criteria are not "susceptible to objective definition," the court held that § 954(d)(1) "gives rise to the danger of arbitrary and discriminatory application" and is void for vagueness under the First and Fifth Amendments. Id., at 680-681. In the alternative, the court ruled that § 954(d)(1) violates the First Amendment's prohibition on viewpoint-based restrictions on protected speech. Government funding of the arts, the court explained, is both a "traditional sphere of free expression," Rust v. Sullivan, 500 U. S. 173, 200 (1991), and an area in which the Government has stated its intention to "encourage a diversity of views from private speakers," Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of Univ. of Va., 515 U. S. 819, 834 (1995). 100 F. 3d, at 681-682. Accordingly, finding that § 954(d)(1) "has a speech-based restriction as its sole rationale and operative principle," Rosenberger, supra, at 834, and noting the NEA's failure to articulate a compelling interest for the provision, the court declared it facially invalid. 100 F. 3d, at 683.
The dissent asserted that the First Amendment protects artists' rights to express themselves as indecently and disrespectfully as they like, but does not compel the Government to fund that speech. Id., at 684 (opinion of Kleinfeld, J.). The challenged provision, the dissent contended, did not prohibit the NEA from funding indecent or offensive art, but merely required the agency to consider the "decency and respect" criteria in the grant selection process. Id., at 689- 690. Moreover, according to the dissent's reasoning, the vagueness principles applicable to the direct regulation of speech have no bearing on the selective award of prizes, and
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