436
Blackmun, J., concurring
this Court's decisions but to burden commercial newsracks more heavily. See Brief for Petitioner 28 ("Cincinnati . . . could run afoul of First Amendment protections afforded noncommercial speech by affording newsrack-type dispensers containing commercial speech like treatment with news-racks containing noncommercial speech").
In this case, Central Hudson's chickens have come home to roost.
The Court wisely rejects Cincinnati's argument that it may single out commercial speech simply because it is "low value" speech, see ante, at 428, and on the facts of this case it is unnecessary to do more. The Court expressly reserves the question whether regulations not directed at the content of commercial speech or adverse effects stemming from that content should be evaluated under the standards applicable to regulations of fully protected speech. Ante, at 416, n. 11. I believe the Court should answer that question in the affirmative and hold that truthful, noncoercive commercial speech concerning lawful activities is entitled to full First Amendment protection. As I wrote in Central Hudson, "intermediate scrutiny is appropriate for a restraint on commercial speech designed to protect consumers from misleading or coercive speech, or a regulation related to the time, place, or manner of commercial speech." 447 U. S., at 573.4 But none of the "commonsense differences," Virginia State Bd. of Pharmacy, 425 U. S., at 771, n. 24, between commercial and other speech "justify relaxed scrutiny of restraints that suppress truthful, nondeceptive, noncoercive commercial speech." Central Hudson, 447 U. S., at 578 (opinion concurring in judgment).
4 I made no mention in Central Hudson of commercial speech proposing illegal activities, but I do not quarrel with the proposition that government may suppress such speech altogether. See Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Comm'n on Human Relations, 413 U. S. 376, 388 (1973). See also Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, 433 U. S. 350, 384 (1977).
Page: Index Previous 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007