Cite as: 538 U. S. 343 (2003)
Opinion of Scalia, J.
cause of the prima-facie-evidence provision, be subject to conviction. Such convictions, assuming they are unconstitutional, could be challenged on a case-by-case basis. The plurality, however, with little in the way of explanation, leaps to the conclusion that the possibility of such convictions justifies facial invalidation of the statute.
In deeming § 18.2-423 facially invalid, the plurality presumably means to rely on some species of overbreadth doctrine.2 But it must be a rare species indeed. We have noted that "[i]n a facial challenge to the overbreadth and vagueness of a law, a court's first task is to determine whether the enactment reaches a substantial amount of constitutionally protected conduct." Hoffman Estates v. Flip-side, Hoffman Estates, Inc., 455 U. S. 489, 494 (1982). If one looks only to the core provision of § 18.2-423—"[i]t shall be unlawful for any person or persons, with the intent of intimidating any person or group of persons, to burn, or cause to be burned, a cross . . ."—it appears not to capture any protected conduct; that language is limited in its reach to con-2 Overbreadth was, of course, the framework of analysis employed by the Virginia Supreme Court. See 262 Va. 764, 777-778, 553 S. E. 2d 738, 745-746 (2001) (examining the prima-facie-evidence provision in a section labeled "OVERBREADTH ANALYSIS" and holding that the provision "is overbroad"). Likewise, in their submissions to this Court, the parties' analyses of the prima-facie-evidence provision focus on the question of overbreadth. Brief for Petitioner 41-50 (confining its discussion of the prima-facie-evidence provision to a section titled "THE VIRGINIA STATUTE IS NOT OVERBROAD"); Brief for Respondents 39-41 (arguing that "[t]he prima facie evidence provision . . . render[s] [the statute] over-broad"); Reply Brief for Petitioner 13-20 (dividing its discussion of the prima-facie-evidence provision into sections titled "There Is No Real Overbreadth" and "There Is No Substantial Overbreadth"). This reliance on overbreadth doctrine is understandable. This Court has made clear that to succeed in a facial challenge without relying on overbreadth doctrine, "the challenger must establish that no set of circumstances exists under which the Act would be valid." United States v. Salerno, 481 U. S. 739, 745 (1987). As the Court's opinion concedes, some of the speech covered by § 18.2-423 can constitutionally be proscribed, ante, at 363.
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