Also known as: substantial governmental interest · important government interest
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A governmental objective of sufficient weight and legitimacy to justify incidental burdens on protected expression under intermediate scrutiny standards. The interest must be unrelated to suppressing speech and the regulation must advance it without burdening more speech than necessary.
Simon Stern burned his draft card on the courthouse steps to protest the Vietnam War. The government prosecuted him under a statute that prohibited destruction of draft cards. The court upheld the conviction because preserving the selective service system qualified as a substantial government interest unrelated to suppressing antiwar expression.
Sasha Stone challenged a state law requiring doctors to inform patients about fetal development before performing an abortion. The state defended the requirement as advancing its interest in potential life. The court recognized that interest as substantial and upheld the disclosure mandate.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Skylar Sullivan was arrested under a statute criminalizing private consensual same-sex conduct. The state argued the law protected traditional morality. The court rejected that claim because moral disapproval alone does not constitute a substantial government interest sufficient to justify the intrusion.
Spencer Silver challenged federal limits on contributions to political candidates. Congress defended the caps as preventing corruption. The court upheld the limits because curbing actual and apparent corruption qualified as a substantial government interest.
Sierra Solutions, an electric utility, challenged a state ban on promotional advertising. The commission justified the ban as conserving energy during a national shortage. The court accepted energy conservation as a substantial government interest that the regulation directly advanced.
Stella Shapiro opened an adult theater in a commercial zone. The city enforced an ordinance restricting such theaters to certain districts to reduce crime and protect property values. The court upheld the zoning because combating secondary effects of adult businesses qualified as a substantial government interest.
A substantial government interest must be important or significant and unrelated to suppressing expression. Courts have recognized interests such as preserving the draft system, conserving energy, preventing corruption, and reducing secondary effects of adult businesses as substantial when supported by the record.
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The substantial interest requirement demands more than a legitimate goal. The government must show the interest is important and that the regulation directly advances it, rather than merely being rationally related to any conceivable purpose.
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No. Moral disapproval of private consensual conduct does not constitute a substantial government interest capable of justifying a criminal prohibition under the First Amendment or Due Process Clause.
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Timing can raise doubts about whether the interest is truly unrelated to suppressing speech. When a law is enacted immediately after a planned protest, courts examine whether the stated interest is genuine or pretextual for viewpoint discrimination.
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…we concluded, in Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc. , 501 U. S. 560, 569 (1991), that Indiana's public indecency statute furthered "a substantial government interest in protecting order and morality," ibid. (plurality opinion); see also id. , at 575 (Scalia, J., concurring in judgment). State laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest,…