Cite as: 536 U. S. 516 (2002)
Opinion of the Court
ments are not immunized by the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, baseless litigation is not immunized by the First Amendment right to petition." Ibid. (citations omitted). While this analogy is helpful, it does not suggest that the class of baseless litigation is completely unprotected: At most, it indicates such litigation should be unprotected "just as" false statements are. And while false statements may be unprotected for their own sake, "[t]he First Amendment requires that we protect some falsehood in order to protect speech that matters." Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U. S. 323, 341 (1974) (emphasis added); id., at 342 (noting the need to protect some falsehoods to ensure that "the freedoms of speech and press [receive] that 'breathing space' essential to their fruitful exercise" (quoting NAACP v. Button, 371 U. S. 415, 433 (1963))). An example of such "breathing space" protection is the requirement that a public official seeking compensatory damages for defamation prove by clear and convincing evidence that false statements were made with knowledge or reckless disregard of their falsity. See New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U. S. 254, 279-280, 285 (1964).
It is at least consistent with these "breathing space" principles that we have never held that the entire class of objectively baseless litigation may be enjoined or declared unlawful even though such suits may advance no First Amendment interests of their own. Instead, in cases like Bill Johnson's and Professional Real Estate Investors, our holdings limited regulation to suits that were both objectively baseless and subjectively motivated by an unlawful purpose. But we need not resolve whether objectively baseless litigation requires any "breathing room" protection, for what is at issue here are suits that are not baseless in the first place. Instead, as an initial matter, we are dealing with the class of reasonably based but unsuccessful lawsuits. But whether this class of suits falls outside the scope of the First Amend-
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