Which case is foundational for prohibiting government prior restraint on publication?

• A. Near v. Minnesota (1931)
• B. Schenck v. United States (1919)
• C. Texas v. Johnson (1989)
• D. Engle v. Vitale (1962)

Answer: (A)

Prior restraint is when the government tries to stop publication before it occurs. The Constitution protects a free press by generally forbidding such censorship in advance. In Near v. Minnesota, the Supreme Court struck down a state law that would allow officials to shut down a newspaper before it could publish, saying that prior restraints on publication are unconstitutional except in extraordinary situations. This ruling established a strong, general rule: the government should not censor the press before it speaks or publishes, and remedies for problems like defamation come after publication rather than as a pre-publication ban. The decision also reinforced that First Amendment protections extend to the states, tying press freedom to incorporation through the Fourteenth Amendment. Other listed cases deal with different First Amendment issues—wartime speech standards, symbolic speech, and school-sponsored prayer—none of which establish the foundational bar on prior restraints like Near does.