Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of United States

In Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of United States, 466 U.S. 485, 104 S.Ct. 1949, 80 L.Ed.2d 502 (1984), the Supreme Court reaffirmed the need for closer scrutiny of certain factual findings "in cases involving restrictions on the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment, particularly in those cases in which it is contended that the communication in issue is within one of the few classes of 'unprotected' speech," id. at 1961, such as fighting words, obscenity, incitement to riot, or libel. In each of those cases, the Court noted, "the limits of the unprotected category, as well as the unprotected character of the particular communications, have been determined by the judicial evaluation of certain facts that have been deemed to have constitutional significance." Id. at 1962.