proscribe (verb) - to forbid, denounce, or condemn, often officially [proh-skrahyb]
BREAKDOWN: PRO- (before) + SCRIB- (write)
proscription is the act of officially banning something or the state of being banned
[COMMONLY CONFUSED] to prescribe is to order or direct; to authorize or advise a medicine or treatment, as in a prescription
“When a legislature undertakes to proscribe the exercise of a citizen's constitutional right to free speech, it acts lawlessly; and the citizen can take matters into his own hands and proceed on the basis that such a law is no law at all.” —William O. Douglas