United States v. United Foods, Inc., 533 U.S. 405, 19 (2001)

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Cite as: 533 U. S. 405 (2001)

Breyer, J., dissenting

Keller, involved compelled contributions by employees to trade unions and by lawyers to state bar associations, respectively. This Court held that the compelled contributions were unlawful (1) to the extent that they helped fund subsidiary activities of the organization, i. e., activities other than those that legally justified a compelled contribution; and (2) because the subsidiary activities in question were political activities that might "conflict with one's 'freedom of belief.' " Wileman, supra, at 471 (quoting Abood, supra, at 235). See Keller, supra, at 15 (communications involving abortion, prayer in the public schools, and gun control); Abood, supra, at 213 (communications involving politics and religion).

By contrast, the funded activities here, like identical activities in Wileman, do not involve this kind of expression. In Wileman we described the messages at issue as incapable of "engender[ing] any crisis of conscience" and the producers' objections as "trivial." 521 U. S., at 471, 472. The messages here are indistinguishable. Compare Brief for Respondent 10-11 (objecting to advertising because it treats branded and unbranded mushrooms alike, associates mushrooms "with the consumption of alcohol and . . . tout[s] mushrooms as an aphrodisiac") with Wileman, supra, at 467, n. 10 (dismissing objections to advertising that suggested " 'all varieties of California fruit to be of equal quality,' " and included " 'sexually subliminal messages as evidenced by an ad depicting a young girl in a wet bathing suit' ") (quoting District Court opinion). See also Appendix, infra. The compelled contribution here relates directly to the regulatory program's basic goal.

Neither does this case resemble either Barnette or Wooley. Barnette involved compelling children, contrary to their conscience, to salute the American flag. 319 U. S., at 632. Wooley involved compelling motorists, contrary to their conscience, to display license plates bearing the State's message "Live Free or Die." 430 U. S., at 707. In Wileman

423

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