216
Breyer, J., concurring in judgment
both determinations. But I reach the plurality's ultimate conclusion in a different way.
In ascertaining whether the statutory provisions are constitutional, I would apply a form of heightened scrutiny, examining the statutory requirements in question with special care. The Act directly restricts the public's receipt of information. See Stanley v. Georgia, 394 U. S. 557, 564 (1969) ("[T]he Constitution protects the right to receive information and ideas"); Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 U. S. 844, 874 (1997). And it does so through limitations imposed by outside bodies (here Congress) upon two critically important sources of information—the Internet as accessed via public libraries. See ante, at 200, 203-204 (plurality opinion); post, at 225-226 (Stevens, J., dissenting); Board of Ed., Island Trees Union Free School Dist. No. 26 v. Pico, 457 U. S. 853, 915 (1982) (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) (describing public libraries as places "designed for freewheeling inquiry"). See also Reno, supra, at 853, 868 (describing the Internet as a "vast democratic" medium and the World Wide Web, in part, as "comparable, from the readers' viewpoint, to . . . a vast library"); Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union, 535 U. S. 564, 566 (2002). For that reason, we should not examine the statute's constitutionality as if it raised no special First Amendment concern—as if, like tax or economic regulation, the First Amendment demanded only a "rational basis" for imposing a restriction. Nor should we accept the Government's suggestion that a presumption in favor of the statute's constitutionality applies. See, e. g., 201 F. Supp. 2d, at 409; Brief for United States 21-24. At the same time, in my view, the First Amendment does not here demand application of the most limiting constitutional approach—that of "strict scrutiny." The statutory restriction in question is, in essence, a kind of "selection" restriction (a kind of editing). It affects the kinds and amount of materials that the library can present to its pa-
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