44 Liquormart, Inc. v. Rhode Island, 517 U. S. 484 (1996)

Page:   Index   Previous  26  27  28  29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  40  Next

516

44 LIQUORMART, INC. v. RHODE ISLAND

Opinion of the Court

commercial speech about alcohol, but instead concerned the regulation of nude dancing in places where alcohol was served." Rubin v. Coors Brewing Co., 514 U. S., at 483, n. 2.

Without questioning the holding in LaRue, we now dis-avow its reasoning insofar as it relied on the Twenty-first Amendment. As we explained in a case decided more than a decade after LaRue, although the Twenty-first Amendment limits the effect of the dormant Commerce Clause on a State's regulatory power over the delivery or use of intoxicating beverages within its borders, "the Amendment does not license the States to ignore their obligations under other provisions of the Constitution." Capital Cities Cable, Inc. v. Crisp, 467 U. S. 691, 712 (1984). That general conclusion reflects our specific holdings that the Twenty-first Amendment does not in any way diminish the force of the Supremacy Clause, ibid.; California Retail Liquor Dealers Assn. v. Midcal Aluminum, Inc., 445 U. S. 97, 112-114 (1980), the Establishment Clause, Larkin v. Grendel's Den, Inc., 459 U. S. 116, 122, n. 5 (1982), or the Equal Protection Clause, Craig v. Boren, 429 U. S. 190, 209 (1976). We see no reason why the First Amendment should not also be included in that list. Accordingly, we now hold that the Twenty-first Amendment does not qualify the constitutional prohibition against laws abridging the freedom of speech embodied in the First Amendment. The Twenty-first Amendment, therefore, cannot save Rhode Island's ban on liquor price advertising.

VIII

Because Rhode Island has failed to carry its heavy burden of justifying its complete ban on price advertising, we conclude that R. I. Gen. Laws §§ 3-8-7 and 3-8-8.1 (1987), as well as Regulation 32 of the Rhode Island Liquor Control Administration, abridge speech in violation of the First Amendment as made applicable to the States by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is therefore reversed.

It is so ordered.

Page:   Index   Previous  26  27  28  29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  40  Next

Last modified: October 4, 2007