Cite as: 514 U. S. 476 (1995)
Syllabus
to occur, would not produce the type of social harm that the Government hopes to prevent. However, the additional asserted interest in "facilitat[ing]" state efforts to regulate alcohol under the Twenty-first Amendment is not sufficiently substantial to meet Central Hudson's requirement. Even if the Government possessed the authority to facilitate state powers, the Government has offered nothing to suggest that States are in need of federal assistance in this regard. United States v. Edge Broadcasting Co., 509 U. S. 418, 431-435, distinguished. Pp. 483-486. (c) Section 205(e)(2) fails Central Hudson's requirement that the measure directly advance the asserted Government interest. The labeling ban cannot be said to advance the governmental interest in suppressing strength wars because other provisions of the FAAA and implementing regulations prevent § 205(e)(2) from furthering that interest in a direct and material fashion. Although beer advertising would seem to constitute a more influential weapon in any strength war than labels, the BATF regulations governing such advertising prohibit statements of alcohol content only in States that affirmatively ban such advertisements. Government regulations also permit the identification of certain beers with high alcohol content as "malt liquors," and they require disclosure of content on the labels of wines and spirits. There is little chance that § 205(e)(2) can directly and materially advance its aim, while other provisions of the same Act directly undermine and counteract its effects. Pp. 486-490. (d) Section 205(e)(2) is more extensive than necessary, since available alternatives to the labeling ban—including directly limiting the alcohol content of beers, prohibiting marketing efforts emphasizing high alcohol strength, and limiting the ban to malt liquors, the segment of the beer market that allegedly is threatened with a strength war—would prove less intrusive to the First Amendment's protections for commercial speech. Pp. 490-491.
2 F. 3d 355, affirmed.
Thomas, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Rehnquist, C. J., and O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer, JJ., joined. Stevens, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, post, p. 491.
Deputy Solicitor General Kneedler argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs were Solicitor General Days, Assistant Attorney General Hunger, Richard H. Seamon, Michael Jay Singer, and John S. Koppel.
477
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