Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/277

 502us1$11J 08-21-96 15:26:31 PAGES OPINPGT

Cite as: 502 U. S. 105 (1991)

119

Opinion of the Court

§ 60.27 (McKinney 1987). We have recognized the importance of this interest before, in the Sixth Amendment context. See Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered v. United States, 491 U. S. 617, 629 (1989). The State likewise has an undisputed compelling interest in ensuring that criminals do not profit from their crimes. Like most if not all States, New York has long recognized the “fundamental equitable principle,” Children of Bedford v. Petromelis, 77 N. Y. 2d, at 727, 573 N. E. 2d, at 548, that “[n]o one shall be permitted to profit by his own fraud, or to take advantage of his own wrong, or to found any claim upon his own iniquity, or to acquire property by his own crime.” Riggs v. Palmer, 115 N. Y. 506, 511–512, 22 N. E. 188, 190 (1889). The force of this interest is evidenced by the State’s statutory provisions for the forfeiture of the proceeds and instrumentalities of crime. See N. Y. Civ. Prac. Law §§ 1310–1352 (McKinney Supp. 1991). The parties debate whether book royalties can properly be termed the profits of crime, but that is a question we need not address here. For the purposes of this case, we can assume without deciding that the income escrowed by the Son of Sam law represents the fruits of crime. We need only conclude that the State has a compelling interest in depriving criminals of the profits of their crimes, and in using these funds to compensate victims. The Board attempts to define the State’s interest more narrowly, as “ensuring that criminals do not profit from storytelling about their crimes before their victims have a meaningful opportunity to be compensated for their injuries.” Brief for Respondents 46. Here the Board is on far shakier ground. The Board cannot explain why the State should have any greater interest in compensating victims from the proceeds of such “storytelling” than from any of the criminal’s other assets. Nor can the Board offer any justification for a distinction between this expressive activity and