overbreadth

Etymology

From over- + breadth.

overbreadth means the excessive broadness of a statute that, in proscribing unprotected activity, also proscribes protected activity. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

Why this word is great

OVERBREADTH — [Noun] The excessive broadness of a statute that, in proscribing unprotected activity, also impermissibly proscribes protected activity. From the English prefix over- ("excessively") + breadth ("width, scope"). Unlike "vagueness," which clouds a law's forbidden boundaries, or "severability," which surgically excises its diseased part, overbreadth condemns the whole for its fatal, structural disproportion—a doctrine that can strike down an entire law for the hypothetical chill it casts on legitimate expression. It is the ordinance against "loud noises" silencing a protestor's megaphone, the ban on "offensive symbols" erasing a century of avant-garde art, or the prohibition on "disorderly gatherings" emptying a public square of all assembly—a legal net cast so wide it drags in protected speech along with the intended catch. The doctrine acknowledges that the greatest threat to liberty is often not the targeted blow, but the careless, sweeping embrace of a power that does not know its own limits.

noun

The excessive broadness of a statute that, in proscribing unprotected activity, also proscribes protected activity.