Sandra Day O'Connor

“ Taken together, Regan, Mabee, and Oklahoma Press establish that differential taxation of speakers, even members of the press, does not implicate the First Amendment unless the tax is directed at, or presents the danger of suppressing, particular ideas. That was the case in Grosjean, Minneapolis Star, and Arkansas Writers', but it is not the case here. The Arkansas Legislature has chosen simply to exclude or exempt certain media from a generally applicable tax. Nothing about that choice has ever suggested an interest in censoring the expressive activities of cable television. ”

“ Finally, Arkansas' sales tax is not content based. There is nothing in the language of the statute that refers to the content of mass media communications. Moreover, the record establishes that cable television offers subscribers a variety of programming that presents a mixture of news, information, and entertainment. It contains no evidence, nor is it contended, that this material differs systematically in its message from that communicated by satellite broadcast programming, newspapers, or magazines. ”

“ Inherent in the power to tax is the power to discriminate in taxation. "Legislatures have especially broad latitude in creating classifications and distinctions in tax statutes." Regan, supra, 461 U.S., at 547, 103 S.Ct., at 2002. ”

“ Because the Arkansas sales tax presents none of the First Amendment difficulties that have led us to strike down differential taxation in the past, cable petitioners can prevail only if the Arkansas tax scheme presents "an additional basis" for concluding that the State has violated petitioners First Amendment rights. ”

“ Cable petitioners contended that their expressive activities are protected by the First Amendment and are comparable to those of newspapers, magazines, and scrambled satellite broadcast television. They argued that Arkansas' salestax ation of cable services, and exemption or exclusion from the tax of newspapers, magazines, and satellite broadcast services, violated their constitutional rights under the First Amendment and under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. ”

“ Exempt from the sales tax were receipts from sales of religious, professional, trade and sports magazines. See id., at 224-226, 107 S.Ct., at 1725-1726. We held that Arkansas' magazine exemption, which meant that only "a few Arkansas magazines pay any sales tax," operated in much the same way as did the $100,000 exemption in Minneapolis Star and therefore suffered from the same type of discrimination identified in that case. ”

“ It will distort the market for ideas. "The constitutional right of free expression is . . . intended to remove governmental restraints from the arena of public discussion, putting the decision as to what views shall be voiced largely into the hands of each of us . ”

“ See generally A. Easton & S. Easton, The Complete Sourcebook of Home Satellite TV 57-66 (1988) .↑ Certain amici in support of cable petitioners argue that Regan is distinguishable from this case because the petitioners in Regan were complaining that their contributions to lobbying organizations should be tax deductible, while cable petitioners complain that sales of their services should be tax exempt. This is a distinction without a difference. As we explained in Regan, " [b] oth tax exemptions and tax deductibility are a form of subsidy that is administered through the tax system." ”