12 CITIZENS UNITED v. FEDERAL ELECTION COMM’N Opinion of STEVENS, J. Finally, the majority suggests that though the scope of Citizens United’s claim may be narrow, a facial ruling is necessary as a matter of remedy. Relying on a law review article, it asserts that Citizens United’s dismissal of the facial challenge does not prevent us “ ‘from making broader pronouncements of invalidity in properly “as­ applied” cases.’ ” Ante, at 14 (quoting Fallon, As-Applied and Facial Challenges and Third-Party Standing, 113 Harv. L. Rev. 1321, 1339 (2000) (hereinafter Fallon)); accord, ante, at 5 (opinion of ROBERTS, C. J.) (“Regardless whether we label Citizens United’s claim a ‘facial’ or ‘as­ applied’ challenge, the consequences of the Court’s deci­ sion are the same”). The majority is on firmer conceptual ground here. Yet even if one accepts this part of Professor Fallon’s thesis, one must proceed to ask which as-applied challenges, if successful, will “properly” invite or entail invalidation of the underlying statute.10 The paradigmatic case is a judicial determination that the legislature acted with an impermissible purpose in enacting a provision, as this carries the necessary implication that all future as­ applied challenges to the provision must prevail. See Fallon 1339–1340. Citizens United’s as-applied challenge was not of this sort. Until this Court ordered reargument, its contention was that BCRA §203 could not lawfully be applied to a —————— invert it. 10 Professor Fallon proposes an intricate answer to this question that the majority ignores. Fallon 1327–1359. It bears mention that our colleagues have previously cited Professor Fallon’s article for the exact opposite point from the one they wish to make today. In Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U. S. 124 (2007), the Court explained that “[i]t is neither our obligation nor within our traditional institutional role to resolve questions of constitutionality with respect to each potential situation that might develop,” and “[f]or this reason, ‘[a]s-applied challenges are the basic building blocks of constitutional adjudication.’ ” Id., at 168 (opinion for the Court by KENNEDY, J.) (quoting Fallon 1328 (second alteration in original)).