What is the O'Brien test?

Answer 1

The O'Brien test is a legal standard used in the United States to evaluate whether a government regulation constitutes a permissible restriction on free speech under the First Amendment. Established in the 1980 Supreme Court case O'Brien v. United States, it outlines four criteria that must be met for a law to be considered constitutional: it must be within the government’s constitutional power, further an important or substantial governmental interest, be unrelated to the suppression of free expression, and not be overly broad or vague. This test is often applied in cases involving symbolic speech and conduct.