Cite as: 527 U. S. 173 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
approximation of efficacy, nor a reasonable accommodation of competing state and private interests. Rather, the regulation distinguishes among the indistinct, permitting a variety of speech that poses the same risks the Government purports to fear, while banning messages unlikely to cause any harm at all. Considering the manner in which § 1304 and its exceptions operate and the scope of the speech it proscribes, the Government's second asserted interest provides no more convincing basis for upholding the regulation than the first.
VI
Accordingly, respondents cannot overcome the presumption that the speaker and the audience, not the Government, should be left to assess the value of accurate and nonmis-leading information about lawful conduct. Edenfield, 507 U. S., at 767. Had the Federal Government adopted a more coherent policy, or accommodated the rights of speakers in States that have legalized the underlying conduct, see Edge, 509 U. S., at 428, this might be a different case. But under current federal law, as applied to petitioners and the messages that they wish to convey, the broadcast prohibition in 18 U. S. C. § 1304 and 47 CFR § 73.1211 (1998) violates the
modating the policies of both lottery and nonlottery States." 509 U. S., at 429-430. The Government points out that Edge hypothesized that Congress "might have" held fast to a more consistent and broader anti-gambling policy by continuing to ban all radio or television advertisements for state-run lotteries, even by stations licensed in States with legalized lotteries. Id., at 428. That dictum does not support the validity of the speech restriction in this case. In that passage, we identified the actual federal interest at stake; we did not endorse any and all nationwide bans on nonmisleading broadcast advertising related to lotteries. As the Court explained, "Instead of favoring either the lottery or the nonlottery State, Congress opted to" accommodate the policies of both; and it was "[t]his congressional policy of balancing the interests of lottery and nonlottery States" that was "the substantial governmental interest that satisfie[d] Central Hudson." Ibid.
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