Editing Symbolic speech (section)

=== O'Brien test ===
While writing the majority opinion for ''[[United States v. O'Brien]]'', [[Chief Justice of the United States|Chief Justice]] [[Earl Warren|Warren]] described a series of guidelines used to determine whether a law that restricts speech violates the First Amendment. These guidelines must remain neutral in relation to the subject of the speech at hand (e.g., a speech that criticizes government action and is believed to violate a law must be treated the same way as a speech under identical circumstance, but praising the government as opposed to criticizing.) The ''O'Brien'' test is not meant to be the absolute deciding factor in cases involving non-verbal speech, but an additional tool to invoke against prohibitions.

The ''O'Brien'' test is thus: The law in question must
* be within the Constitutional power of the government to enact.
* further an important or substantial government interest.
** That interest must be unrelated to the suppression of speech (or "content neutral", as phrased in later cases)
** Prohibit no more speech than is essential to further that interest.