Edenfield v. Fane, 507 U.S. 761, 7 (1993)

Page:   Index   Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  Next

Cite as: 507 U. S. 761 (1993)

Opinion of the Court

The commercial marketplace, like other spheres of our social and cultural life, provides a forum where ideas and information flourish. Some of the ideas and information are vital, some of slight worth. But the general rule is that the speaker and the audience, not the government, assess the value of the information presented. Thus, even a communication that does no more than propose a commercial transaction is entitled to the coverage of the First Amendment. See Virginia State Bd. of Pharmacy, supra, at 762.

Commercial speech, however, is "linked inextricably" with the commercial arrangement that it proposes, Friedman v. Rogers, 440 U. S. 1, 10, n. 9 (1979), so the State's interest in regulating the underlying transaction may give it a concomitant interest in the expression itself. See Ohralik, supra, at 457. For this reason, laws restricting commercial speech, unlike laws burdening other forms of protected expression, need only be tailored in a reasonable manner to serve a substantial state interest in order to survive First Amendment scrutiny. Board of Trustees of State University of N. Y. v. Fox, 492 U. S. 469, 480 (1989); Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp., 447 U. S., at 564. Even under this intermediate standard of review, however, Florida's blanket ban on direct, in-person, uninvited solicitation by CPA's cannot be sustained as applied to Fane's proposed speech.

III

To determine whether personal solicitation by CPA's may be proscribed under the test set forth in Central Hudson we must ask whether the State's interests in proscribing it are substantial, whether the challenged regulation advances these interests in a direct and material way, and whether the extent of the restriction on protected speech is in reasonable proportion to the interests served. See ibid. Though we conclude that the Board's asserted interests are substantial, the Board has failed to demonstrate that its solicitation ban advances those interests.

767

Page:   Index   Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  Next

Last modified: October 4, 2007