424
Opinion of the Court
Nevertheless, for the purpose of deciding this case, we assume that all of the speech barred from Cincinnati's sidewalks is what we have labeled "core" commercial speech and that no such speech is found in publications that are allowed to use newsracks. We nonetheless agree with the Court of Appeals that Cincinnati's actions in this case run afoul of the First Amendment. Not only does Cincinnati's categorical ban on commercial newsracks place too much importance on the distinction between commercial and noncommercial speech, but in this case, the distinction bears no relationship whatsoever to the particular interests that the city has asserted. It is therefore an impermissible means of responding to the city's admittedly legitimate interests. Cf. Simon & Schuster, Inc. v. Members of N. Y. State Crime Victims Bd., 502 U. S. 105, 120 (1991) (distinction drawn by Son of Sam law between income derived from criminal's descriptions of his crime and other sources "has nothing to do with" State's interest in transferring proceeds of crime from criminals to victims); Carey v. Brown, 447 U. S. 455, 465 (1980) (State's interest in residential privacy cannot sustain statute permitting labor picketing, but prohibiting nonlabor picket-it the potential for invidious discrimination of disfavored subjects. See also Metromedia, Inc. v. San Diego, 453 U. S. 490, 536-537 (1981) (Brennan, J., concurring in judgment) (ordinance which permits governmental unit to determine, in the first instance, whether speech is commercial or noncommercial "entail[s] a substantial exercise of discretion by a city's official" and therefore "presents a real danger of curtailing noncommercial speech in the guise of regulating commercial speech"). Cf. Arkansas Writers' Project, Inc. v. Ragland, 481 U. S. 221, 230 (1987) ("In order to determine whether a magazine is subject to sales tax, Arkansas' enforcement authorities must necessarily examine the content of the message that is conveyed . . . . Such official scrutiny of the content of publications as the basis for imposing a tax is entirely incompatible with the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of the press") (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).
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