Hill v. Colorado, 530 U.S. 703, 50 (2000)

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752

HILL v. COLORADO

Scalia, J., dissenting

noznik v. Jacksonville, 422 U. S. 205, 210 (1975) (emphasis added). And as recently as in Schenck, the Court reiterated that "[a]s a general matter, we have indicated that in public debate our own citizens must tolerate insulting, and even outrageous, speech in order to provide adequate breathing space to the freedoms protected by the First Amendment." 519 U. S., at 383 (internal quotation marks omitted).

The Court nonetheless purports to derive from our cases a principle limiting the protection the Constitution affords the speaker's right to direct "offensive messages" at "unwilling" audiences in the public forum. Ante, at 716. There is no such principle. We have upheld limitations on a speak-er's exercise of his right to speak on the public streets when that speech intrudes into the privacy of the home. Frisby, 487 U. S., at 483, upheld a content-neutral municipal ordinance prohibiting picketing outside a residence or dwelling. The ordinance, we concluded, was justified by, and narrowly tailored to advance, the government's interest in the "protection of residential privacy." Id., at 484. Our opinion rested upon the "unique nature of the home"; "the home," we said, "is different." Ibid. The reasoning of the case plainly assumed the nonexistence of the right—common law or other-wise—that the Court relies on today, the right to be free from unwanted speech when on the public streets and sidewalks. The home, we noted, was " 'the one retreat to which men and women can repair to escape from the tribulations of their daily pursuits.' " Ibid. (quoting Carey, 447 U. S., at 471). The limitation on a speaker's right to bombard the home with unwanted messages which we approved in Frisby—and in Rowan v. Post Office Dept., 397 U. S. 728 (1970), upon which the Court also relies—was predicated on the fact that " 'we are often 'captives' outside the sanctuary of the home and subject to objectionable speech.' " Frisby, supra, at 484 (quoting Rowan, supra, at 738) (emphasis added). As the universally understood state of First Amendment law is described in a leading treatise: "Outside

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