Cite as: 538 U. S. 600 (2003)
Opinion of the Court
Relying on Schaumburg and Munson, the Court's decision in Riley invalidated North Carolina's endeavor to rein in charitable solicitors' fees. The Court held, once again, that fraud may not be inferred simply from the percentage of charitable donations absorbed by fundraising costs. See 487 U. S., at 789 ("solicitation of charitable contributions is protected speech"; "using percentages to decide the legality of the fundraiser's fee is not narrowly tailored to the State's interest in preventing fraud").
The opportunity to rebut the unreasonableness presumption attending a fee over 35 percent did not bring North Carolina's scheme within the constitutional zone, the Court explained. Under the State's law, "even where a prima facie showing of unreasonableness ha[d] been rebutted, the fact-finder [still had to] make an ultimate determination, on a case-by-case basis, as to whether the fee was reasonable—a showing that the solicitation involved . . . advocacy or [the] dissemination of information [did] not alone establish that the total fee was reasonable." Id., at 786.
Training on that aspect of North Carolina's regulation, the Court stated: "Even if we agreed that some form of a percentage-based measure could be used, in part, to test for fraud, we could not agree to a measure that requires the speaker to prove 'reasonableness' case by case based upon what is at best a loose inference that the fee might be too high." Id., at 793. "[E]very campaign incurring fees in excess of 35% . . . [would] subject [fundraisers] to potential litigation over the 'reasonableness' of the fee," the Court observed; that litigation risk, the Court concluded, would "chill speech in direct contravention of the First Amendment's dictates." Id., at 794. Especially likely to be burdened, the Riley opinion noted, were solicitations combined with advocacy or the communication of information, and fundraising by small or unpopular charities. Ibid. The Court cautioned, however, as it did in Schaumburg and Munson, that States need not "sit idly by and allow their citizens to be de-
615
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