prior restraint
noun
: governmental prohibition imposed on expression before the expression actually takes place
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web Even for the narrow categories of speech that aren’t protected, nearly all content blocking on social media goes against the first principle of free-speech jurisprudence—the ban on prior restraint, or censorship without judicial review. 
Vivek Ramaswamy, WSJ, 26 Apr. 2022 If Twitter were such a forum, almost all content blocking would be an impermissible prior restraint. Vivek Ramaswamy, WSJ, 26 Apr. 2022 The Supreme Court made that clear in the Pentagon Papers case, a landmark ruling against prior restraint blocking the publication of newsworthy journalism. Matt Ford, The New Republic, 20 Nov. 2021 The Supreme Court made that clear in the Pentagon Papers case, a landmark ruling against prior restraint blocking the publication of newsworthy journalism. Matt Ford, The New Republic, 20 Nov. 2021 The Supreme Court made that clear in the Pentagon Papers case, a landmark ruling against prior restraint blocking the publication of newsworthy journalism. Matt Ford, The New Republic, 20 Nov. 2021 The Times had not faced any prior restraint since 1971, when the Nixon administration unsuccessfully sought to block the publication of the Pentagon Papers detailing U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. Reuters, CNN, 25 Dec. 2021 Wood’s order amounts to prior restraint, the legal term generally used for when courts block a newspaper or other journalistic organization from publishing something. Matt Ford, The New Republic, 20 Nov. 2021 The Supreme Court made that clear in the Pentagon Papers case, a landmark ruling against prior restraint blocking the publication of newsworthy journalism. Matt Ford, The New Republic, 20 Nov. 2021 See More
Vivek Ramaswamy, WSJ, 26 Apr. 2022 If Twitter were such a forum, almost all content blocking would be an impermissible prior restraint. Vivek Ramaswamy, WSJ, 26 Apr. 2022 The Supreme Court made that clear in the Pentagon Papers case, a landmark ruling against prior restraint blocking the publication of newsworthy journalism. Matt Ford, The New Republic, 20 Nov. 2021 The Supreme Court made that clear in the Pentagon Papers case, a landmark ruling against prior restraint blocking the publication of newsworthy journalism. Matt Ford, The New Republic, 20 Nov. 2021 The Supreme Court made that clear in the Pentagon Papers case, a landmark ruling against prior restraint blocking the publication of newsworthy journalism. Matt Ford, The New Republic, 20 Nov. 2021 The Times had not faced any prior restraint since 1971, when the Nixon administration unsuccessfully sought to block the publication of the Pentagon Papers detailing U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. Reuters, CNN, 25 Dec. 2021 Wood’s order amounts to prior restraint, the legal term generally used for when courts block a newspaper or other journalistic organization from publishing something. Matt Ford, The New Republic, 20 Nov. 2021 The Supreme Court made that clear in the Pentagon Papers case, a landmark ruling against prior restraint blocking the publication of newsworthy journalism. Matt Ford, The New Republic, 20 Nov. 2021 See More Word History
First Known Use
1833, in the meaning defined above
Legal Definition
prior restraint
noun
: governmental prohibition on expression (esp. by publication) before the expression actually takes place see also Near v. Minnesota and New York Times Co. v. United States compare censorship, freedom of speech
Note: In New York Times Co. v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court restated its position that “any system of prior restraints” bears “a heavy presumption against constitutional validity” and that the government “carries a heavy burden of showing justification for the imposition of such a restraint.”