The case of National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) v. Karen Finley, et al., 1997 revolved around a dispute over federal funding for the arts. Four performance artists known as the "NEA Four" - Karen Finley, John Fleck, Holly Hughes and Tim Miller - sued NEA after their grant applications were denied due to considerations of decency standards set by Congress in 1990. The plaintiffs argued that these standards violated their First Amendment rights to free speech because they imposed content-based restrictions on government funding for artistic expression. They also claimed that these rules were vague and allowed arbitrary application by officials at NEA who had personal objections to certain types of art or messages conveyed through them. In response, NEA contended that it was within its right as a public funder to consider decency and respect when deciding which projects should receive financial support from taxpayers' money. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of NEA with a majority decision stating that while freedom of speech is crucially important, it does not mean an entitlement to government funds without any conditions attached.

In the dissenting opinion for National Endowment for the Arts v. Karen Finley, Justice Souter argued that the decency and respect clause of NEA's funding criteria was unconstitutional due to its vagueness and potential to suppress free speech. He contended that this clause could be used arbitrarily or discriminatorily by officials in deciding which art projects should receive federal funding, thereby infringing upon artists' First Amendment rights. Furthermore, he expressed concern about a chilling effect on artistic expression as artists might self-censor their work out of fear it would not meet these subjective standards of decency and respect. Thus, according to Justice Souter’s dissenting view, while government has a right to fund arts selectively based on merit or quality considerations; imposing vague moral criteria potentially violates constitutional protections against censorship.