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Supreme Court· 6/16/2003

Virginia v. Hicks

Citations

  • 539 U.S. 113
  • 123 S. Ct. 2191
  • 156 L. Ed. 2d 148
  • 2003 U.S. LEXIS 4782

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

  • recognizing that the doctrine's benefits—eliminating the chilling effect that overbroad laws have on nonparties—must be weighed against its costs—blocking perfectly constitutional applications of a law
  • holding that law is unconstitutionally over-broad if it punishes “substantial” amount of protected free speech, when considered in relation to its “plainly legitimate sweep” (internal quotation marks omitted)
  • recognizing that the doctrine’s benefits — eliminating the chilling effect that overbroad laws have on nonparties — must be weighed against its costs — blocking perfectly constitutional applications of a law
  • holding that a plaintiff bringing an overbreadth challenge must demonstrate that the statute “punishes a substantial amount of protected speech, judged in relation to the statute’s plainly legitimate sweep” (internal quotation marks ■ omitted)
  • holding that the defendant had not shown that the contested policy “prohibits a ‘substantial’ amount of protected speech in relation to its many legitimate applications”
  • acknowledging that overbreadth adjudication reduces the “social costs” of the “considerable burden (and sometimes risk) of vindicating [] rights through case-by-case litigation”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Scalia, Souter, Breyer

Read full opinion on CourtListener

Cited by

446 cases in this archive cite this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

Cites

16 cases in this archive are cited by this case.

Other cases named Virginia v. Hicks

2 other CourtListener records share this case name.

Sourced from CourtListener / Free Law Project (CC0).

This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.