Opinion of the Court
274 U. S. 357, 375 (1927) (Brandeis, J., concurring); see also 12 The Papers of James Madison 193–194 (C. Hobson & R. Rutland eds. 1979). An end because the freedom to think and speak is among our inalienable human rights. See, e.g., 4 Annals of Cong. 934 (1794) (Rep. Madison). A means because the freedom of thought and speech is “indispensable to the discovery and spread of political truth.” Whitney, 274 U. S., at 375 (Brandeis, J., concurring). By allowing all views to flourish, the framers understood, we may test and improve our own thinking both as individuals and as a Nation. For all these reasons, “[i]f there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation,” West Virginia Bd. of Ed. v. Barnette, 319 U. S. 624, 642 (1943), it is the principle that the government may not interfere with “an uninhibited marketplace of ideas,” McCullen v. Coakley, 573 U. S. 464, 476 (2014) (internal quotation marks omitted).
From time to time, governments in this country have sought to test these foundational principles. In Barnette, for example, the Court faced an effort by the State of West Virginia to force schoolchildren to salute the Nation’s flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. If the students refused, the State threatened to expel them and fine or jail their parents. Some families objected on the ground that the State sought to compel their children to express views at odds with their faith as Jehovah’s Witnesses. When the dispute arrived here, this Court offered a firm response. In seeking to compel students to salute the flag and recite a pledge, the Court held, state authorities had “transcend[ed] constitutional limitations on their powers.” 319 U. S., at 642. Their dictates “invade[d] the sphere of intellect and spirit which it is the purpose of the First Amendment … to reserve from all official control.” Ibid.
A similar story unfolded in Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston, Inc., 515 U. S. 557 (1995). There, veterans organizing a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Boston refused to include a group of gay, lesbian,
