440
Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting
directly advances the governmental interest asserted, and whether it is not more extensive than is necessary to serve that interest." 447 U. S., at 566.
I agree with the Court that the city's prohibition against respondents' newsracks is properly analyzed under Central Hudson, see ante, at 416, but differ as to the result this analysis should produce.
As the Court points out, "respondents do not challenge their characterization as 'commercial speech,' " and "[t]here is no claim in this case that there is anything unlawful or misleading about the contents of respondents' publications." Ibid. "Nor do respondents question the substantiality of the city's interest in safety and esthetics." Ibid. This case turns, then, on the application of the last part of the Central Hudson analysis. Although the Court does not say so, there can be no question that Cincinnati's prohibition against respondents' newsracks "directly advances" its safety and esthetic interests because, if enforced, the city's policy will decrease the number of newsracks on its street corners. This leaves the question whether the city's prohibition is "more extensive than necessary" to serve its interests, or, as we elaborated in Fox, whether there is a "reasonable fit" between the city's desired ends and the means it has chosen to accomplish those ends. See 492 U. S., at 480. Because the city's "commercial handbill" ordinance was not enacted specifically to address the problems caused by newsracks, and, if enforced, the city's prohibition against respondents' newsracks would result in the removal of only 62 newsracks from its street corners, the Court finds "ample support in the record for the conclusion that the city did not establish [a] reasonable fit." Ante, at 417 (internal quotation marks omitted). I disagree.
According to the Court, the city's decision to invoke an existing ordinance "to address its recently developed concern about newsracks" indicates that "it has not 'carefully calculated' the costs and benefits associated with the burden
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