388
Breyer, J., dissenting
has not previously held that commercial advertising restrictions automatically violate the First Amendment. Rather, the Court has applied a more flexible test. It has examined the restriction's proportionality, the relation between restriction and objective, the fit between ends and means. In doing so, the Court has asked whether the regulation of commercial speech "directly advances" a "substantial" governmental objective and whether it is "more extensive than is necessary" to achieve those ends. See Central Hudson, 447 U. S., at 566. It has done so because it has concluded that, from a constitutional perspective, commercial speech does not warrant application of the Court's strictest speech-protective tests. And it has reached this conclusion in part because restrictions on commercial speech do not often repress individual self-expression; they rarely interfere with the functioning of democratic political processes; and they often reflect a democratically determined governmental decision to regulate a commercial venture in order to protect, for example, the consumer, the public health, individual safety, or the environment. See, e. g., 44 Liquormart, Inc. v. Rhode Island, 517 U. S. 484, 499 (1996) ("[T]he State's power to regulate commercial transactions justifies its concomitant power to regulate commercial speech that is 'linked inextricably' to those transactions"); L. Tribe, American Constitutional Law § 12-15, p. 903 (2d ed. 1988) ("[C]ommercial speech doctrine" seeks to accommodate "the right to speak and hear expression about goods and services" with "the right of government to regulate the sales of such goods and services" (emphasis in original)).
I have explained why I believe the statute satisfies this more flexible test. See Parts I and II, supra. The Court, in my view, gives insufficient weight to the Government's regulatory rationale, and too readily assumes the existence of practical alternatives. It thereby applies the commercial speech doctrine too strictly. Cf. Buckman Co. v. Plaintiffs' Legal Comm., 531 U. S. 341, 349 (2001) (flexibility necessary
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