504
Thomas, J., dissenting
ing expenditures is narrowly tailored to an interest in the stability or expansion of overall markets for a commodity.
* * *
Although the government's obligation is not a heavy one in Central Hudson and the cases that follow it, we have understood it to call for some showing beyond plausibility, and there has been none here. I would accordingly affirm the judgment of the Ninth Circuit.
Justice Thomas, with whom Justice Scalia joins as to Part II, dissenting.
I
I join Justice Souter's dissent, with the exception of Part II. My join is thus limited because I continue to disagree with the use of the Central Hudson balancing test and the discounted weight given to commercial speech generally. See 44 Liquormart, Inc. v. Rhode Island, 517 U. S. 484, 518- 528 (1996) (Thomas, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment) (criticizing Central Hudson Gas & Elec. Corp. v. Public Serv. Comm'n of N. Y., 447 U. S. 557 (1980)). Because the regulation at issue here fails even the more lenient Central Hudson test, however, it, a fortiori, would fail the higher standard that should be applied to all speech, whether commercial or not.
II
I write separately to note my disagreement with the majority's conclusion that coerced funding of advertising by others does not involve "speech" at all and does not even raise a First Amendment "issue." See ante, at 469-474. It is one thing to differ about whether a particular regulation involves an "abridgment" of the freedom of speech, but it is entirely another matter—and a complete repudiation of our precedent—for the majority to deny that "speech" is even at issue in this case.
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