Cite as: 539 U. S. 654 (2003)
Stevens, J., concurring
and "refusal immediately to review the state-court decision might seriously erode federal policy." Id., at 482-483. In each of the three cases that the Court placed in the fourth category in Cox, the federal issue had not only been finally decided by the state court, but also would have been finally resolved by this Court whether the Court agreed or disagreed with the state court's disposition of the issue. Thus, in Construction Laborers v. Curry, 371 U. S. 542 (1963), the federal issue was whether the National Labor Relations Board had exclusive jurisdiction over the controversy; in Mercantile Nat. Bank at Dallas v. Langdeau, 371 U. S. 555 (1963), the federal issue was whether a special federal venue statute applied to immunize the defendants in a state-court action; and in Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo, 418 U. S. 241 (1974), the federal issue was whether a Florida statute requiring a newspaper to carry a candidate's reply to an editorial was constitutional. In Cox itself, the federal question was whether the State could prohibit the news media from publishing the name of a rape victim. In none of those cases would the resolution of the federal issue have been affected by further proceedings.
In Nike's view, this case fits within the fourth Cox category because if this Court holds that Nike's speech was noncommercial, then "reversal of the state court on the federal issue would be preclusive of any further litigation on the relevant cause of action." 420 U. S., at 482-483; see also Reply Brief for Petitioners 4; Reply to Brief in Opposition 4-5. Notably, Nike's argument assumes that all of the speech at issue in this case is either commercial or noncommercial and that the speech therefore can be neatly classified as either absolutely privileged or not.
Theoretically, Nike is correct that we could hold that all of Nike's allegedly false statements are absolutely privileged even if made with the sort of "malice" defined in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U. S. 254 (1964), thereby precluding any further proceedings or amendments that might over-
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