GOVERNMENT NONENDORSEMENT

What are the constitutional limits on government endorsement? Judges and scholars typically assume that when the government speaks on its own account, it faces few restrictions. Officials may say almost anything they like without constitutional difficulty. That belief has gained support from two doctrines and their accompanying literatures. First, the Supreme Court has fostered it in the course of developing its “recently minted” government speech doctrine. That rule holds that when the government speaks, the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause simply does not apply. In particular, officials may engage in viewpoint discrimination, favoring specific ideas without fear of committing a constitutional violation.