Whether ‘great works of literature’ by Voltaire or George Eliot have been published anonymously should be irrelevant to our analysis, because it sheds no light on what the phrases ‘free speech’ or ‘free press’ meant to the people who drafted and ratified the First Amendment. Similarly, whether certain types of expression have ‘value’ today has little significance; what is important is whether the Framers in 1791 believed anonymous speech sufficiently valuable to deserve the protection of the Bill of Rights. And although the majority faithfully follows our approach to ‘content-based’ speech regulations, we need not undertake this analysis when the original understanding provides the answer. Clarence Thomas
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in McIntyre v. Ohio Board of Elections, 514 U.S. 334 (1995)