표현의 자유와 견해차별 금지원칙의 헌법적 쟁점 ― 미국 연방대법원 판례를 중심으로 ―

This article analyzes the constitutional significance of the principle of viewpoint neutrality—an essential standard in the structure of free speech protection—and examines the possibilities and limits of applying this principle within the Korean legal system. In the American constitutional tradition, the government is strictly prohibited from regulating expression based on particular viewpoints or opinions, and even speech that is offensive, insulting, or hateful cannot be restricted solely because of the perspective it conveys. Precedents accumulated in various areas, including trademark registration, allocation of public resources, and extreme expression in public forums, illustrate that once the government evaluates speech based on appropriateness, morality, or social acceptability, it runs the risk of selecting favored ideas while excluding others. The viewpoint neutrality principle underscores that freedom of expression is foundational to a democratic public sphere and plays a vital role in protecting minority and non-mainstream opinions. By contrast, the Korean Constitution guarantees broad freedom of expression while simultaneously providing explicit grounds for restricting speech to protect public morals and the rights of others, which creates a structural distinction that makes it difficult to adopt the U.S. doctrine wholesale. Moreover, the Constitutional Court of Korea has assessed the legitimacy of speech restrictions primarily through proportionality review and, in matters related to national security or public order, has at times permitted regulations targeting the content of expression itself. Within this context, the viewpoint neutrality principle is less likely to be institutionalized in a direct form; rather, it may serve as a standard for strengthening the prohibition of censorship and for calibrating the balance between freedom of expression and competing constitutional values such as human rights and equality. Ultimately, the article argues that the viewpoint neutrality principle should evolve in the Korean context as a framework that both reinforces the scope of free expression and harmonizes it with other constitutional principles.