Thurgood Marshall

“ Selective taxation is precisely that. In light of the Framers' specific intent "to preserve an untrammeled press as a vital source of public information," Grosjean, 297 U.S., at 250, 56 S.Ct., at 449; see Minneapolis Star, supra, 460 U.S., at 585, n. 7, 103 S.Ct., at 1372, n. 7, our precedents recognize that the Free Press Clause imposes a special obligation on government to avoid disrupting the integrity of the information market. As Justice Stewart explained:
" [T] he Free Press guarantee is, in essence, a structural provision of the Constitution. ”

“ The power to discriminate among like-situated media presents such a risk. By imposing tax burdens that disadvantage one information medium relative to another, the State can favor those media that it likes and punish those that it dislikes.
Inflicting a competitive disadvantage on a disfavored medium violates the First Amendment "command that the government . . . shall not impede the free flow of ideas." Associated Press v. ”

“ Most of the other provisions in the Bill of Rights protect specific liberties or specific rights of individuals: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, the right to counsel, the privilege against compulsory self-incrimination, to name a few. ”

“ The majority offers no reason to believe that programs like these are duplicated by other media. Thus, to the extent that selective taxation makes it harder for Arkansas' 100 cable operators to compete with Arkansas' 500 newspapers, magazines, and broadcast television and radio stations, see 1 Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media 67-68 (123d ed. 1991) , Arkansas' discriminatory tax does "risk . ”